LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


THE 


SCOT  IN  AMERICA. 


BY 

PETER    ROSS,    LL  D., 

AUTHOR    OF 

The  Literature  of  the  Scottish   Reformation;"     "Scotland  and  the  Scots 

"  Robert  Burns  from  a  Literary  Standpoint ;"  "  Life  of 'Saint  Andrew  ;" 

"  The  Book  of  Scotia  Lodge  /"  Editor  of"  The  Songs  of  Scotland, 

Chronologically   Arranged;"       "Life    and    Works    of 

Sir  William   Alexander,  Earl  of  Stirling,"  etc. 


NEW     YORK: 

THF,     RAEBURN     BOOK     COMPANY. 
1896. 


PRINTED    AT    THE    OFFICE    OF 


COPYRIGHT,    1806,    BY 
PETER   ROSS. 


LIBRARIANS  FLufl 


TO    THE    PRESIDENT, 

VICE    PRESIDENTS,    OFFICE    BEARERS,    AND    MEMBERS 
OF    THE 

ST.    AN  DREW'S      SOCI ETY 

OF   THE   STATE   OF    NEW    YORK 

THIS  EFFORT  TO  PRESENT  A  HISTORY  OF  THE  SCOTTISH  RACE  IN  AMERICA, 
A  HISTORY  TO  WHICH  IN  THE  PAST  SO  MANY  MEMBERS  OF  THE  SOCIETY 
HAVE  SO  EXTENSIVELY  CONTRIBUTED,  AND  TO  WHICH  THOSE  OF  THE 
PRESENT  DAY  ARE  SO  HONORABLY  ADDING,  IS  RESPECTFULLY  DEDICATED 
BY  THE  AUTHOR,  WHO  COUNTS  IT  NOT  THE  LEAST  OF  HIS  HONORS  THAT 
HIS  NAME  IS  INSCRIBED  ON  THEIR  ROLL  OF  MEMBERSHIP. 


220641 


CHAP.          I.  INTRODUCTORY    1 

CHAP.         II.  PIONEERS    ~13 

CHAP.       III.  EARLY    COLONIAL    GOVERNORS... 

CHAP.       IV.  REVOLUTIONARY    HEROES 103 

CHAP.         V.  MINISTERS   OF  THE   GOSPEL 141 

CHAP.       VI.  ARTISTS  AND   ARCHITECTS 17-i 

CHAP.     VII.  SCIENTISTS   AND   INVENTORS 194 

CHAP.   VIII.  MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BENE 
FACTORS    221 

CHAP.       IX.  EDUCATORS  . . .- 282 

CHAP.         X.  STATESMEN  AND   POLITICIANS 301 

CHAP.       XI.  AMONG   THE   WOMEN '. 310 

CHAP.     XII.  PUBLIC   ENTERTAINERS 334 

CHAP.  XIII.  MEN  OF  LETTERS 347 

CHAP.   XIV.  AMONG  THE   POETS 376 

CHAP.     XV.  SCOTTISH-AMERICAN    SOCIETIES    411 


P  REF  A  C  E. 


THE  materials  for  the  present  volume  have  been  gath 
ered  from  many  and  varied  sources,  and  their  collection 
has  provided  for  the  author  a  pleasant  relaxation  from 
other  studies  during  several  years.  A  wide  acquaintance 
among  Scots  resident  in  this  country  and  in  Canada  has 
not  only  directed  him  to  original  sources  of  information, 
but  has,  in  various  ways  and  for  many  reasons,  shown 
him  the  desirability  of  the  compilation  of  such  a  work. 

Even  as  now  presented,  the  theme  cannot  be  said  to  be 
exhausted.  What  is  printed  has  been  mainly  selected 
from  a  mass  of  material,  for  it  was  found  that  the  sub 
ject  was  too  extensive  to  be  fully  covered  in  a  single 
volume,  while  every  day  brings  to  the  front  some  fresh 
incidents  in  this  history-making  age  which  deserve  a 
place  in  such  a  record.  Still,  enough  has  been  written,  it 
is  thought,  to  bring  out  into  clear  relief  the  main  pur 
pose  the  author  had  in  entering  upon  its  compilation,  the 
demonstration  of  the  fact  that  in  the  building  up  of  this 
great  Republic  in  all  that  has  contributed  to  its  true 
greatness  and  perfect  civil  and  religious  liberty,  _Scpts- 
C_menjiave,_at  least,  done  their,  share. 

IFislTpSyTEIt  a  work  like  this  was  not  attempted  a 
century  ago,  for  much  of  the  early  history  of  the  Scot  in 
America  has  now  been  lost  or  has  become  so  mingled 
with  the  general  trend  of  events  that  it  has  become  un- 
distinguishable  from  the  mass.  Most  of  the  early  Scotch 
colonists  crossed  the  sea  in  search  of  fortune,  but  a  large 
number  found  a  domicile  in  America  under  circumstances 
which,  though  sad,  reflected  honor  upon  themselves.  De 
votion  to  principle  is  a  wonderful  factor  in  the  greatness 
of  any  country,  and  such  prisoners  as  those  landed  in 


H  PREFACE. 

Boston  from  the  John  and  Sara  in  1652  (as  related  at 
Page  48)  must  have  done  much  to  supplement  and 
strengthen  the  stern  uprightness  inculcated  upon  New 
England  by  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  These  expatriated  Scots 
fought  for  a  principle  at  Dunbar,  and  the  principle  that 
makes  men  take  up  their  arms  in  its  defense  on  the 
field  of  battle  is  one  that  is  not  likely  to  be  abandoned 
merely  on  account  of  worldly  reverses  or  a  backward 
tide  in  the  fortunes  of  war.  So,  too,  in  the  time  of  the 
Covenant,  we  find  many  traces  of  men  and  women  who, 
after  suffering  imprisonment  at  home  for  their  religious 
sentiments,  were  shipped  to  America  as  the  easiest  way 
to  further  punish  and  silence  them.  Thus  the  student  of 
Scottish  history  comes  across  many  items  like  the  fol 
lowing,  which  is  quoted  from  the  statistical  account  of  the 
Parish  of  Glassford,  Lanarkshire,  written  in  1835  by  the 
Rev.  Gavin  Lang,  whose  son,  bearing  the  same  name, 
afterward  became  a  minister  in  Montreal  and  one  of  the 
best-known  clergymen  in  Canada.  It  is  an  extract  from 
the  records  of  the  Kirk  Session  of  Glassford.  "  Item — 
In  1685  Michael  Marshall  and  John  Kay  were  both  taken 
prisoners  for  their  nonconformity,  and  banished  and  sent 
over  sea  to  New  Jersey  in  America.  The  said  Michael 
stayed  several  years  in  America.  After  the  late  happy 
revolution,  [1688,]  designing  to  come  home,  he  was  taken 
prisoner  at  sea  and  was  carried  to  France,  where  he  was 
kept  a  year  and  a  half  in  prison  and  endured  great  hard 
ships  before  he  was  delivered." 

It  may  be  supposed  from  the  above  that  the  Covenant 
er,  Kay,  remained  in  New  Jersey,  or,  at  all  events,  in 
America,  and  it  seems  a  pity  that,  if  he  left  any  descend 
ants,  their  pedigree  should  not  be  known,  as  next  to  de 
scent  from  a  Mayflower  Pilgrim,  no  more  honorable 
start  for  an  American  genealogical  tree  than  the  name  of 
this  Presbyterian  martyr  could  be  imagined.  It  is,  in  fact, 
an  interesting  study  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  Scotch  fam 
ilies  in  America,  and  while  sometimes  they  drop  out  of 
sight  among  what  John  Knox  pleasantly  called  the  "  ras- 
call  multitude,"  the  majority  remains  in  the  van  in  what 
ever  sphere  of  life  they  have  attained. 


PREFACE.  Hi, 

The  descendants  of  Principal  Withersppon  of  Prince 
ton  can  be  traced  in  honorable  positions  in  the  ministry 
and  the  professions  to  the  present  day.  Andrew  Wodrow, 
the  eldest  son  of  Robert  Wodrow,  the  famous  Scotch 
Church  historian,  emigrated  to  Virginia  in  1768,  and 
when  the  Revolutionary  War  broke  out  he  entered  the 
ranks  of  the  Colonists  and  did  his  part  in  consolidating 
the  Colonies  into  a  nation,  rising  in  the  service  to  the 
grade  of  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  Cavalry.  Many  of  the 
descendants  of  the  old  historian  are  yet  to  be  found  in 
America,  mainly  in  Virginia,  principal  among  whom  may 
be  mentioned  the  President  of  South  Carolina  College, 
the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Woodrow,  the  additional  vowel  having 
been  introduced  in  the  name  to  preserve  its  sound,  a  cus 
tom  which  is  widely  prevalent,  and  which  has  helped 
more  than  aught  else  to  obliterate  many  traces  of  the  do 
ings  of  the  early  American  Scots.  This  fashion  of  alter 
ing  the  spelling  of  names  is  unfortunately  much  more 
common  than  is  generally  supposed.  Thus  Douglas  be 
comes  ''Douglass  ";  Watt,  "Watts";  Urquhart,  "  Urk- 
art";  Patrick,  "Partrick";  Napier,  "Napper";  Mackin 
tosh  "  Mackentash  ";  Gibson  "  Gipson  ";  Semple  "  Sarm- 
ple,"  and  so  on. 

A  case  in  point  is  that  of  the  Gilmor  family  of  Baltimore, 
whose  original  patronymic  in  Scotland  was  Gilmour.  As 
the  history  of  this  family  in  America  is  an  interesting  one, 
not  only  for  showing  how  each  successive  generation  has 
kept  in  the  front  ranks  of  professional  and  business  so 
ciety,  but  for  illustrating  how  the  Scot  by  intermarriage 
soon  becomes  a  member  of  the  most  aristocratic  local 
families,  the  following  notice,  from  "  Harper's  Magazine  " 
for  June,  1882,  may  not  inappropriately  be  introduced 
here,  especially  as,  further  on,  it  will  be  found  that  the 
early  New  York  Scots,  the  Livingstones,  Barclays,  Watts, 
and  others  equally  strengthened  their  social  position  in 
the  community  by  marrying  into  the  old  Dutch  families 
—the  salt  of  the  New  Amsterdam  community : 

'*  Four  generations  of  the  Gilmor  family  have  been 
prominent  in  the  business  and  social  circles  of  Baltimore. 
Robert  Gilmor,  the  founder  of  the  family  in  this  country, 


iv.  P  R  V  F  A  C  E  . 

was  born  at  Paisley  on  the  loth  of  November,  1748,  and 
christened  the  same  day  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Wither- 
spoon,  afterward  of  Princeton  College.  John  Gilmor, 
the  father  of  Robert,  was  a  wealthy  manufacturer.  At  the 
early  age  of  seventeen  his  son  displayed  so  great  an  ap 
titude  for  business  that  his  father  took  him  into  partner 
ship.  Within  a  year,  however,  from  this  time,  Robert, 
who  had  previously  made  several  successful  business 
trips  to  London,  now  determined  to  further  extend  his 
commercial  enterprises,  and  with  an  assortment  of  goods 
suitable  for  the  American  market,  he  embarked  in  1767 
for  this  country,  and  landed  at  Oxford,  Maryland,  toward 
the  end  of  September.  This  little  place  was  then  much 
resorted  to  by  the  British  vessels  to  obtain  the  products 
of  the  country.  The  young  man  realized  $1,500  from  his 
venture,  and  being  pleased  with  the  country,  determined 
to  settle  there.  While  on  a  visit  to  Dorchester  County 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  his  future  wife,  Miss  Louisa 
Airey,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Airey,  with  whose 
brother  he  formed  a  partnership  before  he  had  been  in 
the  country  one  year.  On  the  25th  of  September,  1771, 
he  married,  and  after  being  engaged  in  business  on  the 
Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland  for  over  ten  years,  he  re 
moved  to  Baltimore,  believing  it  offered  a  wider  field  for 
his  business.  Mr.  Gilmor  soon  developed  a  character  of 
great  prudence  and  industry,  and  showed  a  decided  talent 
for  making  money. 

"  Among  Mr.  Gilmor's  business  correspondents  at  this 
date  were  Messrs.  Thomas  Willing  and  Robert  Morris 
of  Philadelphia,  both  of  whom  \vere  members  of  the  Con 
tinental  Congress,  and  the  latter  one  of  the  Signers  of  tlu 
Declaration  of  Independence.  They  traded  under  the 
firm  of  Willing  &  Morris.  These  gentlemen,  together 
with  Mr.  William  Bingham,  Mr.  Willing's  son-in-law, 
anticipating  a  treaty  of  peace  after  the  surrender  of  Corn- 
wallis,  were  desirous  of  forming  an  establishment  at  Am 
sterdam  for  the  purpose  of  exporting  more  largely  the 
staple  products  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  and  deeming 
Mr.  Gilmor  a  suitable  person  to  represent  the  concern 
in  Holland,  they  offered  him  a  copartnership,  which  was 


PREFACE.  v. 

accepted.  In  accordance  with  this  arrangement,  Mr. 
Gilmor  sailed  with  his  family  on  the  27th  of  November, 
1782,  and  arrived  safely  on  the  I2th  of  January,  1783,  at 
his  destination,  where  they  met  Captain  Joshua  Barney, 
on  his  way  to  America  with  the  preliminary  treaty  of 
peace  between  Great  Britain,  France,  and  the  United 
States.  At  Paris  Mr.  Gilmor  met  John  Adams,  one  of  the. 
negotiators  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  who  gave  him  a  letter 
addressed  to  Messrs.  Wilhelm  &  Jan  Willink,  the  bank 
ers  of  the  United  States  in  Holland,  and  one  of  the  rich 
est  houses  in  Europe.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  com 
mercial  connection  between  the  Gilmors  and  the  Wil- 
Hnks  which  continued  from  father  to  son  for  upward  of 
fifty  years,  during  which  transactions  took  place  to  the 
amount  of  many  millions  of  dollars. 

"  The  house  in  Amsterdam,  under  the  management  of 
Mr.  Gilmor,  soon  commanded  an  extensive  business,  ex 
tending  all  over  Europe,  and  to  the  West  Indies  and  the 
United  States.  Eventually  the  firm  thus  constituted  was 
broken  up  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Samuel  Inglis,  one  of  the 
Philadelphia  partners.  Mr.  Bingham,  who  was  at  that 
time  living  in  London,  wrote  to  Mr.  Gilmor  to  come 
there,  with  a  view  of  arranging  a  partnership  with  him. 
He  did  so,  and  the  result  was  the  establishment  of  the 
firm  of  Robert  Gilmor  &  Co.  of  Baltimore,  in  which  Mr. 
Bingham  was  the  other  member.  By  his  successful  en 
terprises  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  Mr.  Gilmor,  in  the 
course  of  fifteen  years,  became  one  of  the  merchant 
princes  of  Baltimore. 

"  In  1799  the  business  connection  with  Mr.  Bingham 
was  dissolved,  and  Mr.  Gilmor  associated  his  two  sons, 
Robert  and  William,  with  him,  under  the  firm  name  of 
Robert  Gilmor  &  Sons.  The  correspondents  of  the  old 
firm  were  continued  to  the  new,  and  many  years  of  com 
mercial  prosperity  followed.  Robert  Gilmor,  Jr.,  did 
most  of  the  traveling  for  the  firm,  and  was  thus  enabled 
to  combine  pleasure  with  profit.  He  continued  to  take 
the  deepest  interest  in  the  prosperity  of  Baltimore  to  the 
last,  and  died  in  1849,  universally  lamented. 

"  His  younger  brother,  William,  was  married  at  an 


r'L  PREFACE. 

early  age  to  Mrs.  Marianne  Drysdale,  a  young  widow  of 
nineteen.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Isaac  Smith  of  North 
ampton  County,  Virginia.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gilmor  had 
twelve  children.  Their  eldest  son,  Robert,  was  graduated 
at  Harvard  in  1828,  and  afterward  went  to  Europe  as  at 
tache  to  the  legation  with  Mr.  Rives,  our  Minister  to 
France.  After  remaining  abroad,  visiting  places  of  inter 
est,  and  meeting  with  a  great  deal  of  attention,  he  re 
turned  in  the  Autumn  of  1829.  It  was  his  good  fortune 
during  this  trip  to  spend  several  days  at  Abbotsford  with 
Sir  Walter  Scott,  and  often  referred  to  it  with  pleasure. 
Mr.  Gilmor's  country  seat  was  Glen-Ellen,  in  Baltimore 
County.  He  married  Ellen  Ward,  daughter  of  Judge 
Ward,  of  Baltimore,  whose  memory  is  cherished  as  one 
of  the  most  admired  ladies  that  ever  graced  Baltimore 
society.  The  Hon.  Robert  Gilmor,  who  has  been  for 
more  than  twelve  years  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme 
bench  of  Baltimore,  is  a  son  of  this  lady.  He  possesses 
the  love  of  art  which  is  hereditary  in  his  family,  and  owns 
a  number  of  fine  paintings  and  engravings  formerly  pos 
sessed  by  his  relative.  Mr.  William  Gilmor,  who  mar 
ried  Miss  Key,  a  descendant  of  Francis  S.  Key,  and  Col. 
Harry  Gilmor,  who  won  distinction  as  a  dashing  cavalry 
officer  in  the  Confederate  service  during  the  late  war,  are 
brothers  of  Judge  Gilmor." 

We  might  find  similar  accounts  of  the  Scotch  families 
in  the  local  histories  of  all  the  States,  but  the  subject  is 
really  limitless,  and  it  presents  itself  to  us  in  all  sorts  of 
biographical  reading,  both  in  the  old  land  and  the  new. 
For  instance,  we  read  that  Thomas  Carlyle's  favorite  sis 
ter  still  resides  in  Canada,  which  has  been  her  home  for 
many  years,  and  a  brother  of  Dr.  Livingstone  long  car 
ried  on  business  at  Listowell,  in  Ontario.  A  brother  of 
Mungo  Park,  an  earlier  African  traveler,  left  three  daugh 
ters,  all  of  whom  crossed  the  Atlantic,  but  every  trace  of 
them  has  been  lost.  In  the  course  of  this  work  many 
instances  are  given  of  the  descendants  of  famous  Scots 
taking  up  their  residence  in  the  Western  Hemisphere,  and 
in  several  cases  the  fortunes  of  entire  families  have  been 
followed  from  their  transatlantic  beginning  to  the  pres- 


PREFACE.  vii. 

ent  day.  There  is  no  more  delightful  or  interesting 
feature  in  connection  with  the  Scot  in  America  than 
this  branch  of  the  subject. 

In  many  portions  of  this  work  the  author  might  be 
criticised  for  having  permitted  the  pcrferviditm  ingenium 
Scotorum  to  carry  him  apparently  to  extreme  lengths  in 
speaking  in  terms  of  praise  of  his  native  land.  If  in  this 
respect  the  bounds  of  decorum  have  been  exceeded,  it  has 
arisen  from  no  want  of  appreciation  of  or  devotion  to  the 
magnificent  Republic  of  which  he  is  proud  to  be  a  citi 
zen,  and  in  which  for  many  years  he  has  found  a  happy\ 
home.  But  there  is  nothing  out  of  place  in  a  heart  beat-) 
ing  as  strongly  at  the  sight  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes  as  at) 
a  blink  of  the  blue  banner  of  old  St.  Andrew.  The  twoj 
countries  represented  by  these  emblems  have  so  much  in 
common  that  love  for  the  one  necessarily  implies  love  for 
the  other.  But  if  some  ultra  American  critic  should  con 
demn  the  writer  on  this  score,  he  submits  that  he  has 
gone  no  further  in  his  admiration  than  Americans  them 
selves.  In  a  letter  to  the  writer  a  Roman  Catholic  prel 
ate,  well  known  for  his  literary  ability  and  for  his  devo 
tion  to  America,  his  native  land,  says: 

"  While  Scotsmen  and  their  descendants  all  over  the 
world  do  not  make  as  clamorous  and  sometimes  offensive 
show  of  their  love  for  the  Old  Country  as  does  the  Celt  of 
Ireland,  their  devotion  to  the  beauty,  honor,  success,  and 
grandeur  of  the  dear  old  land  is,  in  my  opinion,  far  deep 
er  and  far  more  justified.  It  is  wonderful,  especially  in 
view  of  the  scarcity  of  population,  of  the  comparative 
poverty  of  the  soil,  and  from  the  unfavorable  situation  of 
Scotland  as  regards  the  rest  of  Europe,  what  a  noble 
worldwide  history  she  has,  and  how  many  great  men  she 
has  produced.  While  Scotland  was  ultimately  benefited 
by  the  Union,  in  the  sense  of  material  prosperity,  the 
smaller  and  poorer  country  exerted  far  more  influence 
on  the  politics,  literature,  and  commerce  of  the  wealthier 
one.  It  is  no  idle  boast  that  Scotsmen  reduced  Canada, 
conquered  India,  suppressed  the  Sepoy  mutiny,  and  have 
furnished  the  United  States  with  an  immense  number  of 
the  most  intelligent  and  loyal  citizens." 


VIII. 


P RE F A C  E . 


Equally  laudatory  was  the  following  tribute  by  another 
American  citizen,  Consul  Jenkinson  of  Glasgow,  when 
he  said:  "The  great  body  of  the  American  people  not 
only  entertain  a  feeling  of  friendship  for  the  people  of 
Scotland,  but  also  a  sense  of  obligation,  for  much  of  what 
they  are  they  owe  to  the  teaching  and  example  of  Scot 
land.  If  they  believed  in  liberty  and  independence,  it 
was  mainly  due  to  what  the  Scots  had  taught  them.  If 
they  tried  to  elevate  mankind  morally  and  socially  by  a 
thorough  system  of  popular  education,  they  but  follow 
the  example  of  Scotland.  If  they  refused  to  put  on  and 
wear  the  shackles  which  bound  the  consciences  of  men 
and  prevented  a  full  and  free  religious  worship,  they  but 
accepted  the  results  of  the  long  and  severe  contest  waged 
by  the  people  of  Scotland.  They  had  not  only  drawn 
upon  the  teaching  and  the  example  of  the  Scotch,  but 
they  had  to  some  extent  appropriated  their  wisdom  and 
their  genius  in  putting  these  into  practice.  At  all  times 
since  the  history  of  their  people  began  they  had  had 
among  them  many  distinguished  statesmen  who  were 
Scotsmen." 

After  such  tributes — and  they  might  be  multiplied  by 
the  hundred — from  men  not  to  the  manner  born,  the 
author  may  be  forgiven  any  apparent  excess  of  enthusi 
asm  to  which  he  has  been  beguiled  in  the  course  of  in 
diting  the  following  pages.  At  the  same  time,  no  effort 
has  been  made  to  cover  up  the  backsliding  of  any  par- 
ticular  individual,  and  now  and  again  the  author  has  felt 
it  necessary  to  expose  the  shortcomings  of  some  com 
patriot  who,  to  put  it  in  the  least  offensive  way,  did  not 
come  up  to  the  national  standard.  There  are  not  many 
such,  although  it  must  be  confessed  the  author  has  not 
exerted  himself  very  exhaustively  in  trying  to  discover 
them.  Still,  even  with  the  most  diligent  search,  the  num 
ber  of  black  sheep  in  the  Scottish  flock  would  be  found 
comparatively  few.  The  national  record  in  America  is, 
on  the  wrhole,  a  grand  one.  An  instance  is  not  on  record 
of  a  Scotsman  being  tried  by  Lynch  law,  or,  with  a  single 
exception,  of  one  being  tarred  and  feathered.  But  that 
solitary,  disagreeable  event  happened  so  long  ago  that  it 


PREFACE.  {Xm 

is  difficult  to  understand  the  true  inwardness  of  the  case, 
and  for  all  we  really  do  know  the  victim  might  have  been 
a  martyr  instead  of  an  evildoer.  He  seems  to  have  been 
rather  a  dubious  character,  however,  judging  by  the  fol 
lowing  account  of  him  written  by  the  late  Benson  J.  Los- 
sing,  the  American  historian. 

"  John  Malcolm  was  a  Scotsman  who  settled  in  North 
Carolina  after  the  famous  rebellion  of  1745.  He  was 
aide  to  Gov.  Tryon  in  1771,  when  he  went  against  the 
Regulators.  He  afterward  became  a  Custom  House  offi 
cer  at  Falmouth,  (now  Portland,)  in  Maine,  and  early  in 
1774  he  was  in  a  similar  position  in  Boston.  He  was  an 
insolent  man.  One  day  he  struck  a  tradesman  for  an  al 
leged  insult,  and  a  wrarrant  was  issued  for  his  arrest.  The 
constable  pretended  he  could  not  find  him.  A  mob 
gathered  about  his  house,  when  he  thrust  a  sword 
through  a  broken  window  and  wounded  one  of  them. 
They  broke  in,  found  him  in  a  chamber,  lowered  him  by 
a  rope  from  a  window  to  a  cart,  took  off  his  clothes, 
tarred  and  feathered  him,  and  dragged  him  through  sev 
eral  of  the  streets  with  a  rope  around  his  neck  to  Liberty 
Tree.  From  there  he  was  taken  to  a  gallows  on  Boston 
Neck,  beaten,  and  threatened  with  death.  In  the  course 
of  an  hour  he  was  conveyed  to  the  extreme  north  end  of 
the  town,  and  then,  after  being  bruised,  and  benumbed 
with  cold  for  four  hours,  they  took  him  back  to  his  house. 
What  became  of  him  afterward  is  not  on  record.  He  was 
despised  by  both  parties,  and  became  equally  malevolent 
toward  Whigs  and  Tories." 

Considerable  space  might  have  been  devoted  to-  the 
humor  of  the  Scot  in  America,  but  it  was  felt  that  such 
a  theme  might  more  properly  be  left  as  the  subject  of  a 
monograph  by  some  other  investigator.  Such  a  compila 
tion  would  not  only  be  interesting  in  itself,  _but_would__ 
show  that  the  race  had  lost  none  of  its  native:[pawkiness__ 
by  being  transplanted,  nay,  would  demonsffate~~rather 
that  it  was  broadened,  that  it  was  less  dry,  that  it  did 
not  require  so  much  "  thawing  out "  under  the  influence 
of  a  few  years'  alternate  baking  and  freezing  beneath 
an  American  sky.  Still,  in  these  stories  the  Scot  would 


x%  PREFACE. 

be  there  with  all  his  noted  characteristics.  Here  is  an 
illustration  in  a  story  concerning  dour  Scotch  obstinacy, 
which  was  once  told  to  a  group  in  a  New  York  hotel 
by  a  middle-aged  man  of  alert  appearance  and  rapid, 
nervous  movements :  "  My  father,"  he  began  "  came  over 
about  seventy-five  years  ago  and  settled  in  Michigan, 
which,  in  that  part,  at  any  rate,  was  a  semi-wilderness.  As 
the  country  grew  more  settled  my  father,  from  the  mere 
fact  of  his  having  been  a  pioneer,  became  very  prom 
inent  in  civic  affairs  in  the  community.  He  was  very 
conscientious,  but  extremely  impatient  of  contradiction, 
never  understanding  why  a  person  could  disagree  with 
him,  when  he  was  so  plainly  correct  in  his  position. 

"  Well,  one  night,  contrary  to  his  usual  custom,  he  did 
not  come  home  to  supper.  Eight  o'clock  came  and  the 
whole  family  was  in  bed  and  still  he  had  not  arrived.  It 
was  after  I  o'clock  in  the  morning  that  his  heavy  step 
was  heard  on  the  stairs.  My  mother,  who  had  been  anx 
ious,  met  him  with  a  light  in  her  hand. 

"  '  Where  have  you  been?"  she  asked,  looking  at  him 
seriously. 

"  '  Been  on  a  jury/  he  growled. 

"  '  Why  did  you  stay  so  late?  ' 

"  '  Stay  so  late?  There  were  eleven  obstinate  devils  on 
that  jury  and  it  took  me  all  night  to  convince  them.' " 

But  such  vain  frivolities  must  not  occupy  us  further, 
and,  besides,  as  this  preface  is  already  too  long,  we  must 
acknowledge  several  obligations,  and  so  bring  it  to  a 
close. 

In  a  volume  like  this  many  sources  have  been  culled 
to  contribute  in  some  way  to  its  completeness,  to  fur 
nish  information  of  more  or  less  importance.  It  has  been 
difficult  to  determine  in  every  case  the  printed  authority 
for  much  of  the  work,  but  where  it  has  been  possible  the 
authority  has  been  pointed  out.  In  a  more  general  way 
the  author  has  been  indebted  to  many  of  the  publications 
of  Gen.  James  Grant  Wilson,  son  of  the  sweet  Scottish 
poet  of  Poughkeepsie.  To  the  volume  on  "Scottish  Poets 
in  America,"  by  John  D.  Ross,  LL.  D.,  is  due  much  of 
the  information  concerning  living  bards  contained  in 


PREFACE.  x'l. 

Chapter  XIV.  Much  useful  information  has  also  been 
received  from  Mr.  Robert  Whittet  of  Richmond,  Va.;  Mr. 
John  Johnston,  Milwaukee,  and  several  others.  Some  of 
the  data  contained  in  the  chapter  on  Scottish  societies 
has  been  condensed  from  an  earlier  work  by  the  author, 
"  St.  Andrew :  the  Disciple,  the  Missionary,  and  the  Pa 
tron  Saint,"  now  nearly  out  of  print. 

It  may  be  noticed  that  the  references  to  the  Scot  in 
Canada  have  not  been  by  any  means  as  full  as  they  might 
be.  In  fact,  the  writer  has  wandered  across  the  St.  Law 
rence  only  at  intervals.  To  do  otherwise  would  have 
simply  flooded  these  pages  with  sketches  of  a  great  ma 
jority  of  the  very  men  who  have  made  Canada  a  nation, 
and,  besides,  the  work  has  already  been  done  in  a  thor 
oughly  appropriate  and  lovable  manner  by  W.  J.  Rattray 
of  Toronto.  It  may  be  mentioned,  too,  for  reasons  that 
will  be  apparent  and  easily  understood  by  any  one  who 
has  had  any  acquaintance  with  bookmaking  in  the 
United  States  during  the  past  thirty  years,  that  only  in  a 
comparatively  few  instances,  and  then  merely  to  empha 
size  some  paricular  point,  have  references  been  made  to 
living  personages. 

The  writer  now  commends  the  volume  to  his  country 
men  and  to  all  lovers  of  Scotland,  with  the  fervent  hope 
that  it  may  be  the  means  of  increasing,  even  in  a  little  de 
gree,  the  reverence  which  has  in  the  past  been  freely  ren 
dered  to  the  dear  old  land  in  the  Great  Republic  of  the 
West. 


THE  SCOT  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

THE  Scots  in  America,  with  truth,  claim  to  be  equally 
loyal  to  the  land  they  left  and  to  the  land  of  their  adop 
tion.  Were  it  at  all  necessary  to  prove  how  perfectly 
just  is  this  claim  an  abundance  of  evidence  could  readily 
be  presented.  But  the  claim  is  generally  allowed  even 
by  the  most  rabid  believers  in  "  Know  Nothingism." 
From  time  to  time  movements  have  sprung  up  in 
America  directed  against  a  particular  race  or  nationality, 
but  no  such  attack  has  ever  been  made  directly  or  indi 
rectly  upon  those  hailing  from  Scotland.  They  have 
generally  been  acknowledged  as  good  exemplary  citi 
zens,  people  who  had,  as  a  people,  no  axe  to  grind,  and 
who  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  America  acted  as  citi 
zens,  and  from  the  standpoint  of  citizenship  unswayed 
by  any  claims  of  nationality.  No  politician,  so  far  as  is 
known,  ever  figured  on  k*  the  Scotch  vote,"  nor  did  any 
Scotch  aspirant  for  political  office  ever  count  on  the 
"  solid  support  "  of  his  countrymen.  In  all  matters  per 
taining  to  the  country  the  citizen  of  Scottish  birth  com 
pletely  sinks  his  own  original  nationality  and  takes  his 


2  THE   SCOT   IN    AMERICA. 

place  simply  and  individually  with  the  other  citizens  in 
whatever  matter  is  at  issue. 

The  Scots  at  home  somehow  do  not  understand  this. 
They  do  not  see  how  it  is  possible  for  a  Scotsman  to 
remain  loyal  in  heart  to  his  own  land  and  yet  fight 
against  its  government,  as  in  the  time  of  the  Revolu 
tionary  War,  nor  even  how  a  feeling  of  regard  for  the 
old  nationality  can  remain  in  the  breast  of  one  who  will 
ingly  takes  an  oath  which  absolves  him  from  all  fealty 
to  the  land  of  his  birth. 

But  the  Americans  fully  understand  and  appreciate  it 
all,  and,  as  a  result,  no  new  citizens  are  more  cordially 
welcomed  to  the  great  republic  than  those  who  hail  from 
the  Land  o'  Cakes.  All  over  the  country  the  Scot  is 
looked  up  to  with  respect.  He  is  regarded  as  an  embod 
iment  of  common  sense,  a  natural  lover  of  civil  and  re 
ligious  liberty,  a  firm  believer  in  free  institutions,  in  the 
rights  of  man,  in  fair  play,  and  exemplary  in  his  loyalty 
to  whatever  cause  he  may  have  adopted.  They  laugh 
at  his  reputed  want  of  wit,  at  his  little  idiosyncrasies,  at 
his  dourness,  at  his  dogged  determination,  at  his  want 
of  artificiality,  and  several  other  peculiarities,  but  admire 
intensely  the  effectiveness  of  his  work,  the  habit  he  has 
of  "  getting  there  "  in  whatever  he  sets  out  to  do,  the 
quiet  way  in  which  he  so  often  climbs  to  the  top,  whether 
in  banking  or  professional  or  military  circles,  the  public- 
spiritedness  he  shows  in  all  walks  of  life  and  his  truly 
democratic  spirit. 

The  fact  is,  from  the  beginning  of  their  history  the 
Scots  have  been  model  colonizers  and  have  had  the 
happy  faculty  of  making  themselves  perfectly  at  home 
in  all  climes  and  in  all  circumstances.  If  we  like  to  be 
lieve  the  earliest  traditions,  the  Scots  were  originally  a 
Jribe  ofjjreece.  The  tribe  went  to_  Egypt  and  their 
leader,  as  might  be  expected,  became  commander  in 
chief  of  the  forces  in  that  country  and  married  Scota,  the 
daughter  of  the  Pharaoh  who  flourished  at  that  time,  as 
was  eminently  fitting  and  characteristic.  This  Scotch 
warrior  and  his  followers,  or  some  of  them,  had  sense 
enough  not  to  be  caught  in  the  Red  Sea  when  it  swal- 


INTRODUCTORY.  3 

lowed  up  so  many  Egyptians,  and  when  that  catastrophe 
occurred  they  left  Egypt.  Poverty  stricken  and  deso 
late,  the  original  Scottish  chiefs  had  no  further  use  for 
the  country,  and  so  sought  for  other  fields  of  usefulness. 
Making  their  way  .to  Portugal  they  settled  there,  and 
naturally  enough  their  leading  chief,  Galethus  by  name, 
became  King.  One  of  his  descendants  went  to  Ireland 
with  a  hosTbf  followers  and  became  monarch  of  that  un 
happy  country.  They  journeyed  afterward  to  Scotland, 
but  where  they  will  go  next  the  believers  in  this  legend 
do  not  inform  us,  although  some  people  assert  that  the 
migratory  movement  has  already  set  in,  with  America  as 
its  objective  point.  There  are  other  legends~oTthe  early 
wandering  habits  of  the  primitive  Scots,  some  of  which 
make  them  travel  from  Iceland,  from  Central  Europe, 
and  from  Asia,  without  ever  touching  Lt  Ireland  at  all. 
In  fact,  by  the  believers  in  these  last  theories  the  Irish 
idea  is  regarded  as  a  national  slander.  Then  if  we  credit 
the  legend  that  Gaelic  was  the  language  spoken  by 
Adam  and  Eve  while  they  resided  in  the  Garden  of  Eden 
and  that  Welsh  was  what  they  conversed  in  after  their 
ignominious  expulsion  from  that  earthly  paradise,  we 
get  an  idea  not  only  of  the  high  antiquity  but  of  the  lost 
estate  of  the  early  Scots. 

However  \ve  may  regard  these  legends,  they  all  point 
in  an  indefinite  way  to  one  fact — and  some  fact  can  al 
ways  be  evolved  out  of  the  wildest  and  most  incoherent 
mass  of  legends — that  the  pioneers  of  the  Scottish  peo 
ple  of  to-day  were  jwanderers.  This  characteristic  is 
borne  out  by  their  later  and  better  authenticated  history. 
We  find  them  early  noted  in  the  military  services  of  the 
continent  of  Europe,  fighting  with  courage  and  fidelity, 
true  soldiers  of  fortune,  under  whatever  flag  they  hap 
pened  to  be  enrolled,  sometimes  indeed,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  famous  Scots  Guard  of  France,  trusted  with  interests 
deemed  too  sacred  for  the  subjects  of  the  realm  they 
served  to  protect.  We  find  them,  also,  occupying  lead 
ing  positions  at  the  various  seats  of  learning,  and  the 
history  of  such  institutions  as  the  Scots  Colleges  at  Paris 
and  Rome  yet  testify  to  the  high  regard  in  which  the  in- 


4  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

tellectual  qualities  of  the  nation  were  held  even  at  a  time 
when  the  general  standard  of  education  in  Scotland  itself 
was  by  no  means  high.  There  was  hardly  a  position  of 
importance  in  Europe  in  which  the  influence  of  the  Scot 
tish  race  was  not  at  one  time  or  other  more  or  less  di 
rectly  felt,  and  \vhat  has  been  called  the  "  ubiquitousness 
of  the  Scotch  "  has  given -rise  to  many  curious  yet  amus 
ing  stories,  which,  however,  all  have  more  or  less  truth 
for  their  foundation.  It  is  often  asserted  that  when  the 
north  pole  shall  be  discovered  a  Scotchman  will  be  found 
astride  of  it,  and  we  have  read  stories  of  Chinese  man 
darins,  Turkish  pashas,  and  South  Sea  Island  chiefs  who 
turned  out  on  occasion  to  be  natives  of  Scotland  and 
proud  of  their  nationality. 

A  story  which  illustrates  this  is  given  in  Peter  Bu- 
chan's  "  Historic  and  Authentic  Account  of  the  Ancient 
and  Noble  Family  of  Keith."  It  refers  to  an  incident  in 
the  life  of  the  greatest  of  the  Earls  Marischal — Fred 
erick  the  Great's  most  honored  Field  Marshal.  It  was 
copied  by  Buchan  from  Dr.  James  Anderson's  "  Bee,"  a 
forgotten  weekly  publication  issued  for  three  years,  be 
tween  1790  and  1793.  "  The  Russians  and  the  Turks,  in 
their  war,  having  diverted  themselves  long  enough  in 
murdering  one  another,  for  the  sake  of  variety  they 
thought  proper  to  treat  of  a  peace.  The  commissioners 
for  this  purpose  were  Marshal  General  Keith  (born  at 
Inverugie)  and  the  Turkish  Grand  Vizier.  These  two 
personages  met,  with  the  interpreters  of  the  Russ  and 
Turkish  betwixt  them.  When  all  was  concluded  they 
arose  to  separate;  the  Marshal  made  his  bow  with  his 
hat  in  his  hand,  and  the  Vizier  his  salaam  with  turban  on 
his  head.  But  when  these  ceremonies  of  taking  leave 
were  over,  the  Vizier  turned  suddenly,  and,  coming  up 
to  Keith,  took  him  freely  by  the  hand  and,  in  the  broad 
est  Scotch  dialect,  spoken  by  the  lowest  and  most  illit 
erate  of  our  countrymen,  declared  warmly  that  '  it  made 
him  very  happy,  now  that  he  was  sae  far  frae  hame,  to 
meet  a  countryman  in  his  exalted  station.'  Keith  stared 
with  all  his  eves,  but  at  last  the  explanation  came  and 
the  Grand  Vizier  told  him:  '  My  father  was  bellman  of 


INTRODUCTORY.  5 

Kirkcaldy,  in  Fife,  and  I  remember  to  have  seen  you,  sir, 
and  your  brother  occasionally  passing.'  " 

The  Scot  abroad,  however,  does  not  always  occupy 
high  places.  Sometimes  he  misses  the  tide  which  leads 
to  fortune,  but  even  then  his  national  philosophical  spirit 
does  not  leave  him,  and  he  makes  the  best  of  his  circum 
stances,  whatever  they  may  be.  An  instance  of  this,  and 
beyond  question  a  true  one,  is  given  in  the  Rev.  Dr. 
William  Wright's  very  interesting  work  on  "  The 
Brontes  in  Ireland."  He  says:  •'  On  the  coast  of  Syria 
I  once  arranged  with  a  ragged  rascally  looking  Arab  for 
a  row  in  his  boat.  My  companion  was  a  Scotch  Hebrew 
Professor.  It  was  a  balmy  afternoon  and  we  enjoyed 
and  protracted  our  outing.  We  talked  a  little  to  our 
Arab  in  Arabic  and  much  about  him  of  a  not  very  com 
plimentary  character  in  our  own  tongue.  I  happened  to 
drop  some  sympathetic  words  regarding  the  poor 
wretch,  and  suddenly  his  tongue  became  loosened  in 
broad  Scotch  and  he  told  us  his  story.  It  was  very  sim 
ple.  Twenty  years  before,  the  English  ship  on  which  he 
served  as  a  lad  had  been  wrecked  at  Alexandretta,  on 
the  northern  coast  of  Syria.  He  swam  ashore,  lived 
among  the  people  of  the  coast  till  he  became  one  of 
themselves,  and  at  the  time  we  met  him  he  was  the  hus 
band  of  an  Arab  woman  and  the  father  of  a  dusky  prog 
eny.  He  was  content  with  his  squalid  existence  and 
never  again  wished  to  see  his  native  heather." 

The  correctness  of  the  last  sentence  is  open  to  very 
grave  doubt;  in  fact,  it  could  only  have  been  written  by 
one  who  did  not  understand  the  Scottish  character. 
Doubtless  it  is  true  that  the  Arab  boatman  did  not  want 
to  revisit  his  native  land  in  that  character,  and  with  its 
attendant  poverty.  But  could  he  have  managed  to 
gather  a  few  shekels  together,  the  hope  which  every 
Scotsman  abroad  has  in  his  heart  of  hearts  of  returning 
once  more  to  his  native  land,  even  for  a  brief  glimpse, 
would  have  been  ever  present,  and  ever  increasing  in  in 
tensity,  as  time  passed  on. 

In  spite,  however,  of  their  successes  abroad,  the  Scots 
at  home,  especially  in  these  later  days,  do  not  seem  to 


6  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

value  the  services  which  their  wandering  countrymen 
have  rendered  to  the  glory  of  the  old  land,  and  have  in 
fact  made  its  name  be  honored  and  respected  all  over  the 
world.  Possibly  this  arises  from  a  popular  misconcep 
tion  of  one  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  most  carefully  delin 
eated  creations — Sir  Dugald  Dalgetty.  He  has  been 
held  up  to  ridicule  as  a  timeserver,  a  cut-throat,  a  man 
without  principle,  and  an  embodiment  of  self.  But  there 
was  nothing  in  his  character  as  portrayed  by  Sir  Wal 
ter's  matchless  pen  to  indicate  that  he  was  anything  but 
the  honorable  cavalier  he  invariably  described  himself  as 
being.  His  sword  was  his  fortune,  and  he  sold  it  to  the 
highest  bidder,  but  he  never  broke  an  agreement  or  be 
trayed  a  trust.  He  served  the  flag  under  \vhich  he  \vas 
enrolled  with  the  best  of  his  ability,  and  his  crowning 
hope  was  to  gather  enough  money  to  enable  him  to 
spend  his  later  years  where  his  life  began.  His  only 
fault  was  his  poverty,  and  his  life  was  devoted  to  the  re 
moval  of  that  fault.  After  all,  poverty  at  home  has  really 
been  the  cause  which  has  always  inspired  the  Scot  to 
/roam  away  from  his  native  land.  Said  a  well-known\ 

/  Scotch  banker  in  New  York  once  to  the  writer:  "  -  -  is\ 
poor,  but  then  we  were  all  poor  when  we  came  here.  If  \ 
we  had  not  been  poor  there  is  not  a  Scotsman  in  the  I 

\    banking  business  in  New  York  who  would  ever  have 
\  dreamed  of  leaving  Scotland.    Why  should  we?" 

To  the  Scot  in  America,  the  New  World  is  a  practical 
reality  and  Scotland  a  reminiscence,  a  sentiment.  He 
throws  himself  with  ardor  into  all  things  American,  gives 
to  it  his  best  endeavors,  takes  up  all  the  duties  of  citizen 
ship,  and  does  everything  that  lies  in  his  power  to  pro 
mote  the  general  wealth  of  the  country  by  building  up 
its  commerce,  by  developing  its  resources,  and  by  adding 
to  its  higher  aspirations  by  widening  and  popularizing  its 
educational,  artistic,  and  literary  aspirations  and  oppor 
tunities.  He  becomes  an  integral  part  by  active  citizen 
ship  in  a  commonwealth  where  the  mere  knowledge  of 
his  nationality  secures  him  at  the  outset  a  warm  wel 
come,  and  is  a  factor  in  the  individual  or  general  favor 
which  enables  him  to  mount  ever  higher  without  elic- 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 

iting  jealousy  or  ill-feeling  or  ill-nature  on  the  part  of 
the  native  element. 

But  he  never  forgets  Scotland  even  though  it  becomes 
simply  a  sentiment,  although  even  when  the  chance 
comes  he  does  not  forsake  the  interests  and  friendships 
which  have  grown  around  him  and  return  to  his  own 
land,  spend  his  gear,  and  enjoy  a  blink  of  affluent  sunset 
before  the  darkness  of  the  long  night  comes  on.  All 
over  Scotland  we  find  traces  of  the  practical  love  which 
the  Scot  in  America  entertains  for  the  "  Land  o'  Cakes." 

In  the  parish  records  of  Kirkcudbright  is  an  entry  of 
the  sum  of  £31  being  left  in  1803  by  James  R.  Smyth  of 
New  York,  the  interest  of  which  was  to  be  devoted  to 
the  purchase  of  Bibles  for  the  poor,  and  Robert  Lenox 
of  the  famous  New  York  family  of  that  name  was  mu 
nificent  in  his  gifts  to  the  poor  in  the  Stewartry.  Miss 
Harriet  Douglas,  afterward  Mrs.  Congar  of  New  York, 
gave  during  her  lifetime  £100  to  the  service  of  the  poor 
in  Castle  Douglas  and  Gelston.  Mr.  John  S.  Kennedy 
gave  a  beautiful  piece  of  statuary  to  adorn  the  West  End 
Park  of  Glasgow,  in  which  city  he  first  learned  the  ele 
ments  of  business.  Mr.  Thomas  Hope,  merchant,  New 
York,  bequeathed  a  considerable  sum  for  the  erection 
and  endowment  of  a  hospital  in  his  native  place,  Lang- 
holm,  Dumfrieshire,  and  that  charitable  foundation,  after 
considerable  legal  bickering,  is  now  in  successful  opera 
tion.  John  McNider,  once  a  noted  merchant  in  Quebec, 
left  at  his  decease  £40  to  the  poor  of  his  native  town  of 
Kilmarnock,  and  another  Quebec  merchant,  John  Muir, 
left  £50  to  be  distributed  among  the  needy  in  the  beauti 
ful  Lanarkshire  parish  of  Dalserf,  where  he  started  out 
on  the  journey  of  life.  Such  evidences  of  kindly  remem 
brance  of  the  old  land  might  be  multiplied  almost  indefi 
nitely,  and  instances  are  constantly  being  added,  from 
the  munificent  donations  of  Andrew  Carnegie,  to  the 
smaller  sums  sent  by  less  affluent  but  not  less  kindly 
wanderers  "  furth  "  of  Scotland. 

A  noted  Scottish-American  benefactor  of  his  native 
parish  was  Robert  Shedden  of  Beith,  who  was  born 
there  in  1741  and  was  the  representative  of  an  ancient 


8  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

V 

Ayrshire  family.  He  went  to  Norfolk,  Ya.,  in  1759 
entered  into  business  there  as  a  merchant.  He  married 
a  Virginia  lady  and  evidently  intended  to  settle  perma 
nently  in  the  country.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out 
he  remained  loyal  to  Britain  and  was  compelled  to  take 
refuge  with  his  family  on  a  British  vessel,  and  soon  after 
ward  his  property  in  Virginia  was  confiscated.  After  a 
short  stay  in  Bermuda  he  went  to  New  York,  and  there 
remained  so  long  as  the  city  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
British.  Then  he  went  to  England,  where  he  resumed 
business  as  a  merchant.  His  death  took  place  in  Lon 
don  in  1826.  The  lands  of  Gatend,  Beith,  were  purchased 
by  him  and  transferred  to  trustees,  so  that  the  rent,  to 
the  annual  value  of  £50,  might  be  distributed  in  annuities 
not  exceeding  £10  and  not  less  than  £5  among  residents 
of  the  parish.  In  connection  with  the  same  branch  of 
the  Sheddens  a  celebrated  case  was  tried  in  the  Scotch 
courts  in  1861,  in  which  a  romantic  story  with  incidents 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  was  unfolded.  Its  occasion 
was  the  attempt  of  an  American  family  of  the  name  to 
be  declared  legitimate  and  so  acquire  considerable  prop 
erty  in  Ayrshire.  But  the  attempt  was  not  sustained  by 
the  Scotch  courts,  nor  by  those  in  London  before  which 
the  case  was  carried  on  appeal. 

In  writing  of  the  Scot  in  America  we  find  the  subject 
so  vast  that  it  is  difficult  to  present  an  adequate  view  of 
the  theme  within  the  compass  of  a  volume  of  ordinary 
size.  The  materials  are  so  extensive  and  the  subjects 
are  to  be  found  in  so  many  and  such  varied  walks  of  life 
that  what  is  here  written  can  only  be  indicative,  or  sug 
gestive,  of  the  important  services  the  nationality  has 
performed  in  the  mighty  work  of  building  up  the  North 
American  continent.  We  find  the  Scot  wherever  we 
,  turn  in  banking  circles,  colleges,  legislative  halls,  pul- 
«  !^  pits,  the  fighting  and  the  civffjservices,  in  editors'  sanc 
tums,  merchants'  offices,  and  in  the  mechanics'  work 
shops  and  factories.  About  the  only  sphere  in  which 
they  have  not  shone  is  that  of  the  prize  ring,  although  a 
gang  of  six  New  York  Bowery  toughs  once  found  to 
their  cost  that  the  Scots  were  born  fighters,  when  a  sim- 


INTRODUCTORY.  9 

pie  looking  wayfarer  from  Stranraer  whom  they  essayed 
to  rob  had  them  all  sprawling  on  the  sidewalk  in  front  of 
him  before  they  exactly  realized  what  had  happened.  It 
is  very  seldom,  too,  that  we  hear  of  a  Scot  becoming 
what  is  known  as  a  practical  politician,  a  political 
44  boss,"  with  all  that  the  designation  implies.  The  near 
est  approach  to  it  in  the  knowledge  of  the  writer  was  the 
late  Police  Justice  Hugh  Gardner  of  New  York,  who 
was  for  several  years  regarded  as  the  real  leader  of  the 
Republican  party  in  that  city.  Judge  Gardner  was  born 
at  Paisley  in  1818,  and  long  carried  on  business  as  a 
dyer  in  New  York  in  partnership  with  the  late  Matthew 
McDougall,  a  native  of  Kilbarchan,  who  for  many  years 
held  the  office  of  United  States  Consul  at  Dundee.  Gard 
ner  drifted  into  politics  soon  after  his  arrival  here,  and 
was  at  one  time  a  Police  Commissioner,  but,  although 
mixed  up  in  all  the  "  deals "  and  tricks  and  schemes 
which  then,  as  now,  disgraced  local  politics  in  his  adopt 
ed  city,  "  Hugh,"  as  he  was  familiarly  called,  passed 
through  them  all  unscathed  in  his  personal  character,  and 
died,  as  he  had  lived,  with  the  reputation  of  an  honest 
politician.  He  was  a  warm-hearted  man  and  an  enthu 
siast  about  Scotland.  He  delighted,  in  a  quiet  way,  in 
doing  a  good  turn  to  his  countrymen,  by  exerting  his 
influence  in  getting  them  appointed  to  official  or  other 
employment  over  which  he  had  any  control;  but  woe  to 
the  misguided  wretch  who  openly  boasted  that  the  ties 
of  a  common  motherland  gave  him  any  undue  claimsjpr, 
assistance.  Such  a  man  in  Gardner's  eyes  was  a  ft  fule." 
The  only  instance  on  record  when  he  publicly  did  a  good 
turn  to  a  Scotsman,  as  such,  was  in  connection  with  the 
first  case  he  tried  after  his  elevation  to  the  bench.  The 
prisoner  had  been  arrested  for  being  "  drunk  and  disor 
derly,"  and  in  a  Scotch  accent  promptly  acknowledged 
his  guilt.  "Where  are  ye  frae?"  asked  the  Judge. 
"  Frae  Paisla,"  replied  the  prisoner.  "  Ye're  discharged, 
but  dinna  mak  a  fule  o'  yersel  again,"  was  the  Judge's 
decision.  The  next  prisoner,  a  hod-carrier,  "'  with  the 
map  of  Ireland  depicted  all  over  his  face,"  as  the  Judge 
said  when  telling  the  story  afterward,  "  tried  the  Paisley 


10  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

game,  but  I  gied  him  a  lang  enough  sentence  to  make 
up  for  the  ither  fellow,  an'  sae  justice  was  satisfied." 
Hugh  Gardner  was  brusque  in  his  manner,  but  he  was 
liberal,  generous,  and  sympathetic,  and  showed  these 
qualities  in  many  ways,  but  always  in  each  instance  with 
the  admonition  to  "  say  naething  aboot  it." 

In  treating  of  the  influence  of  the  race,  the  question  of 
what  is  being  done  by  people  of  Scottish  descent  should 
be  borne  in  mind,  although  it  is  difficult  at  times  to  trace 
out  the  line  of  descent  in  a  country  where  few  people 
claim  an  ancestral  tree,  and  where  99  per  cent,  of  the 
population  boast  of  having  Scotch  blood  in  their  veins. 
It  is  not  proposed  here  to  deal  with  the  achievements  of 
others  than  natives  of  Scotland  except  in  a  few  instances 
which  are  adduced  mainly  for  the  sake  of  showing  that 
the  influence  of  a  Scottish  progenitor  goes  on  through 
many  generations.  An  instance  of  this,  one  that  most 
readily  occurs  at  the  moment,  is  that  of  the  American 
family  founded  by  John  Graham. 

JNlr^Graham  was  a  native  of  Edinburgh,  where  he  was 
Ix.rn  in  1694,  and  claimed  descent,  whether  rightly  or 
wrongly  there  are  no  means  of  determining,  from  one  of 

i^the  Marquises  of  Montrose.  He  was  educated  for  the 
medical  profession  at  Glasgow,  practiced  for  a  short 
time  in  Londonderry,  and  with  some  emigrants  from  the 

I  North  of  Ireland  crossed  the  Atlanjdc  in  j^iS  and  took 
up  his  residence  at  Exeter,  New  Hampshire.  While 
there  he  studied  for  the  ministry,  and  in  time  became  a 
minister  at  Stafford,  Conn.  From  that  charge  he  re 
signed  for  the  frankly  expressed  reason  that  its  emolu 
ments  were  insufficient  for  his  support,  and  in  1733  he  be 
came  pastor  of  a  church  at  JWoodbury,  Conn.,  where  he 
remained  for  about  forty  years7~orliil  nis  death  injTy^ 
Mr.  Graham  was  a  powerful  and  popular  preacher  and 
was  the  author  of  several  works,  all  of  which,  being  con 
troversial  in  their  nature,  are  now  very  properly  forgot 
ten.  His  son,  Andrew,  was  intense  in  his  American  pa 
triotism.  He  was  one  of  the  most  outspoken  advocates 
for  separation  from  the  motherland  when  the  events 
began  which  led  to  the  Revolution  of  1776,  and  in  the 


INTRODUCTORY.  11 

war  which  accompanied  it  he  took  an  active  part.  At 
the  battle  of  White  Plains  he  was  captured  by  the  Brit 
ish,  but  was  released  after  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis. 
Later  he  represented  Woodbury  for  many  years  in  the 
Connecticut  Legislature.  One  of  the  sons  of  this  pa 
triot — Andrew — became  recognized,  before  his  death  in 
1841,  as  the  most  noted  criminal  lawyer  in  New  York, 
and  yet  another  son,  John  Hodges  Graham,  entered 
the  navy  as  a  midshipman  in  1812  and  two  years  later 
had  command  of  Commodore  McDonough's  flagship  in 
the  famous  engagement  on  Lake  Champlain.  In  1849 
he  became  a  Captain  in  the  American  navy,  and  died, 
full  of  years  and  honors,  in  1878.  Another  grandson  of 
the  Scottish  preacher,  John  Lorimer  Graham,  long  a 
lawyer  of  eminence  in  New  York,  was  Postmaster  of  that 
city  between  1840  and  1844,  and  his  services  as  such 
were  recognized  as  being  of  great  value  to  the  com 
munity. 

Then,  too,  we  find  Scotsmen  doing  good  work  for  the 
country  and  for  humanity  in  ways  that  can  hardly  be 
classified  for  the  purposes  or  scope  of  this  work.  A 
case  in  point  is  that  of  William  Steel,  once  one  of  the  L 
most  noted  and  practical  of  tha/Pband  of  Abolitionists 
and  social  reformers  who  did  so  much  to  mitigate  the 
horrors  of  slavery,  to  make  it  unpopular,  and  finally 
were  the  means  of  bringing  about  the  removal  of  that 
most  baneful  of  institutions  from  the  American  social 
system.  Steel  was  born  at  Biggar,  Lanarkshire,  in  1809, 
and  settled  in  or  near  Winchester^  Va.,  with  his  parents, 
in  1817.  Afterward  he  moved  to  Ohio.  There  he  was 
soon  noted  for  his  hatred  of  slavery,  and  he  became  one 
of  the  most  successful  workers  on  the  once  mysterious 
"  underground  railroad  "  by  which  so  many  slaves  were 
carried  to  places  where  their  liberty  was  secure,  where 
the  words  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  that  "  all 
men  are  created  equal  "  meant  more  than  a  figure  of 
speech  or  were  held  to  apply  to  any  particular  class  or 
race.  Steel  used  to  boast  that  no  slave  was  ever  retaken 
after  getting  into  his  hands,  and  the  boast  was  amply 
borne  out  by  facts.  He  had  many  curious  experiences, 


12  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

many  hairbreadth  escapes  while  carrying  on  this  humane 
work,  but  he  passed  through  them  all  unscathed.  As  for 
many  years  he  was  regarded  as  the  leader  of  the  aboli 
tionists  in  Ohio,  he  was  a  marked  man  and,  had  circum 
stances  permitted,  the  slave  owners,  in  Virginia  especial 
ly,  would  have  made  of  him  a  terrible  example.  Indeed, 
they  at  one  time  offered  a  reward  of  $5,000  for  his  head, 
but  he  only  laughed  at  all  such  evidences  of  ill-will 
and  even  offered  to  carry  his  head  on  his  own  shoulders 
into  the  enemy's  territory  if  the  money  was  placed  in  re 
sponsible  hands  so  that  he  was  sure  it  would  be  paid 
after  they  had  completed  their  intentions  and  satisfied 
their  hate.  Notwithstanding  his  engrossing  labors  in 
connection  with  the  anti-slavery  crusade,  Steel  acquired 
a  moderate  fortune  in  business,  but  it  was  swept  away  in 
the  financial  panic  of  1844.  He  lived  to  see  the  princi 
ples  for  which  he  had  worked  so  hard  become  com 
pletely  successful,  although  at  a  terrible  cost,  and  the 
last  few  years  of  his  life  were  pleasantly  spent  with  his 
sons,  at  Portland,  Oregon.  There  he  died  in  1881. 

Mention  might  be  made  here  also  of  another  noted 
!__  abolitionist  worker,  Judge  Tanie4._Bro\ynlee  of  Ohio.  He 
was  born  in  a  hamlet  near  Glasgow  in  1801,  and  used  to 
boast  that  many  of  his  ancestors  had  fought  "For  Christ's 
Crown  and  Covenant."  He  settled  in  the  United  States 
in  1827,  and  three  years  later  his  parents  and  the  rest  of 
the  family  followed  him.  They  bought  a  beautiful  tract 
of  land  in  Mahoning  County,  Ohio,  and  prospered  great 
ly.  In  his  "  Historical  Collections  of  Ohio  "  Henry  Howe 
writes:  "  For  his  first  thirty  years  in  this  country  Judge 
Brownlee  was  engaged  chiefly  in  the  buying  and  selling 
of  cattle,  purchasing  yearly  thousands  and  thousands  of 
cows  and  beeves  for  the  great  markets  of  the  West  and 
East.  He  was  always  active  in  politics,  an  enthusiastic 
and  ardent  Whig;  but  while  acting  with  the  Whigs  he 
astonished  the  Abolitionists  by  attending  an  indignation 
meeting  held  at  Canfield  against  the  passage  of  the  Fugi 
tive  Slave  law,  when  he  drew  up  a  resolution  so  auda 
cious  that  the  committee  feared  to  adopt  it,  it  seeming 
treasonable.  He  offered  it  personally,  and  it  was  car- 


INTRODUCTORY.  13 

ried  in  a  whirl  of  enthusiasm.  It  was  k  Resolved,  That, 
come  life,  come  death,  come  fine  or  imprisonment,  we 
will  neither  aid  nor  abet  the  capture  of  a  fugitive  slave; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  will  harbor  and  feed,  clothe  and 
assist,  and  give  him  a  practical  godspeed  toward  lib 
erty.'  *  *  *  Judge  Brownlee  held  many  positions  of 
public  and  private  trust.  For  years  he  held  his  life  in 
jeopardy,  having  repeatedly  heard  the  bullets  whistling 
around  his  head  when  obliged  to  visit  certain  locailites 
still  remembered  for  their  opposition  to  the  [civil]  war 
and  the  operations  of  the  revenue  system.  He  died  Jan 
uary  20,  1879,  at  Poland,  Ohio.  He  was  a  stanch  Pres 
byterian,  and  his  friends  were  numbered  among  the  rich 
and  the  poor,  who  found  in  him  that  faith  and  charity 
which  make  the  whole  world  kin."  A  daughter  of  this 
typical  Scot — Mrs.  Kate  B.  Sherwood — has  contributed 
several  volumes  of  high-class  verse,  including  many 
stirring  lyrics,  to  the  literature  of  her  own  country,  the 
country  of  her  father's  adoption. 

In  quite  another  although  possibly  less  important  de 
partment  of  usefulness  old  John  Allan,  the  once  noted 
antiquary  and  book  collector,  might  be  recalled.  He 
was  born  at  Kilbirnie,  Ayrshire,  in  1777.  His  father 
was  a  "  small  farmer  "  there  and,  like  most  people  of  his 
class,  had  a  hard  task  in  constantly  wrestling  with  the 
soil  to  produce  enough  to  make  ends  meet,  and  so  the 
family  became  scattered  in  early  life,  after  their  school 
ing  was  completed.  John  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  1794 
and,  settling  in  New  York,  got  a  position  as  clerk.  Aft 
erward  he  became  a  collector  of  accounts  and  real  estate 
agent,  but  he  never  acquired  what  would  even  then  be 
called  moderate  wealth.  Therefore  it  is  extraordinary 
how  he  managed  to  gather  such  a  wonderful  variety  of 
curiosities,  antiquities  and  literary  treasures  of  all  sorts. 
His  house  at  17  Vandewater  street  was  a  veritable  mu 
seum.  It  was  crowded  from  cellar  to  attic  with  books, 
pictures  and  knick-knacks  of  all  ages  and  countries. 
Allan  had  a  particular  penchant  for  collecting  snuff-boxes 
— a  hobby  which  was  once  a  favorite  one  among  Scotch 
antiquaries — and  his  possessions  in  this  field  were  more 


14  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

numerous  than  had  ever  before  been  gathered  together 
in  America.  He  had  also  a  craze  for  illustrating  books — 
a  craze  which  is  by  no  means  to  be  commended,  or  which 
would  ever  be  entertained  by  one  who  loved  literature 
for  its  own  sake — and  his  "  illustrated  "  copies  of  such 
works  as  the  life  of  Washington  and  the  poems  of  Rob 
ert  Burns  were  extraordinary  not  merely  for  their  bulk, 
but  for  the  wealth  and  variety,  and  sometimes  the  rarity 
and  uniqueness  of  the  material  which  had  been  used  in 
them.  The  destructiveness  of  this  form  of  literary  amuse 
ment,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  is  fully  set  forth  in  a  de 
lightful  passage  on  "  Grangerites "  in  John  Hill  Bur 
ton's  "  Bookhunter,"  for  the  hobby  is  not,  as  has  some 
times  been  said,  an  American  invention,  but  had  its  rise 
in  England,  or  was  at  least  in  vogue  there  long  before 
it  crossed  the  sea.  Allan  took  no  special  interest  in  Scot 
land,  mixed  rarely,  if  ever,  among  his  countrymen  in 
the  city  in  which  he  had  his  home,  but  devoted  his  time 
and  his  means  to  increasing  his  collections.  After  his 
death  they  were  dispersed  at  public  auction,  and  realized 
nearly  $38,000. 

In  studying  the  history  of  the  Scot  in  America  we 
come  upon  many  curious  facts  in  the  early  history  of  the 
continent.  For  instance,  the  first  paper  mill  ever  erected 
in  Canada  was  due  to  the  business  enterprise  of  James 
Crooks,  a  native  of  Kilmarnock,  where  he  was  born  in 
1778."  He  was  a  good  soldier  as  well  as  business  man, 
and  served  with  distinction  in  the  royal  army  in  the  bat 
tle  of  Queenstown  Heights  and  in  other  engagements  of 
the  War  of  1812.  Afterward  he  won  eminence  as  a  rep 
resentative  of  the  people  in  the  legislative  chambers  of 
Canada,  and  died  full  of  years  and  honors  at  West  Flam- 
borough,  Ontario,  in  1860.  During  the  course  of  these 
pages  several  other  instances  will  be  recorded  of  the  first 
steps  in  important  industries  being  undertaken  by  Scots 
men. 

Then  knowledge  of  the  race  in  America  comes  to  us  in 
indirect  ways.  In  the  poems  of  our  national  bard  are 
several  in  honor  of  Miss  Jeannie  Jaffrey,  whose  "  two 
lovely  een  o'  bonnie  blue  "  apparently  played  havoc  with 


INTRODUCTORY.  15 

the  heart  of  the  poet.  Miss  Jaffrey  was  the  daughter  of 
the  Rev.  Andrew  Jaffrey,  minister  of  Lochmaben.  She 
married  a  gentleman  named  Rejowj^k,  and,  after  residing 
several  years  in  Liverpool,  removed  with  her  husband 
to  the  United  States.  Scott  Douglas,  in  his  library  edi 
tion  of  Burns's  poems,  says:  "  Her  husband's  name  was 
[William]  Renwick,  and  her  position  in  the  chief  city 
of  the  United  States  was  one  of  distinguished  respecta 
bility.  Washington  Irving  was  proud  of  her  friendship 
and  society,  and  some  years  after  her  death,  in  Octo 
ber,  1850,  her  memoirs  were  published  along  with  a  col 
lected  volume  of  her  writings."  Her  son  James  (born  in 
Liverpool)  became  in  1820  Professor  of  Natural  Philos 
ophy  and  Chemistry  in  Columbia  College,  New  York, 
and  was  one  of  the  Commissioners  who  laid  out  the 
early  boundary  line  of  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick 
and  a  frequent  and  welcome  writer,  mainly  on  scientific 
subjects.  He  died  in  1863.  One  of  his  sons,  Henry  B. 
Renwick,  who  died  in  1895,  was  a  noted  engineer  and 
expert  in  patent  cases  and  was  the  first  Inspector  of 
Steam  Vessels  for  the  Port  of  New  York.  He  was  en 
gaged  by  the  United  States  Government  in  many  im 
portant  engineering  works,  notably  the  construction  of 
the  Sandy  Hook  and  Egg  Harbor  breakwaters.  He 
was  also  one  of  the  Government  surveyors  in  the  mat 
ter  of  fixing  the  boundary  line  between  Maine  and  New 
Brunswick.  Another  son,  James,  who  also  died  in  1895, 
was  the  architect  of  Grace  Church,  the  Roman  Catholic 
Cathedral  on  Fifth  Avenue,  and  other  important  build 
ings  in  New  York,  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  the 
Corcoran  Gallery,  Washington,  and  of  Vassar  College. 
The  whole  of  the  Renwick  family,  however,  were  of 
more  than  ordinary  ability,  as  might  be  expected  from 
the  descendants  of  a  "  heroine  of  Burns,"  and  who  was 
one  of  the  sprightliest  and  most  charming  of  Scottish- 
American  ladies. 

If  it  was  thought  necessary  to  introduce  sensational 
matters  in  a  volume  of  this  kind,  very  considerable  space 
might  be  given  to  the  exploits  of  Allan  Pinkerton,  the 
ablest  detective  who  ever  assisted  justice  in  America. 


16  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Sketches  of  this  man's  career,  however,  are  plentiful 
enough,  and  his  successes  and  experiences  have  been 
told  in  a  series  of  volumes  bearing  his  name,  but  evi 
dently  written  by  some  literary  gentleman  who  seems 
to  have  been  a  believer  in  the  art  of  embellishing  truth 
with  fiction,  so  much  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  know 
what  to  regard  as  truth  and  what  to  place  to  the  credit 
of  embellishment.  Pinkerton  was  born  at  Glasgow  in 
1819,  his  father  being  a  policeman.  He  certainly  became 
the  best-known  detective  in  America,  acquired  a  na 
tional  reputation,  in  fact,  and  was  a  terror  to  evildoers 
of  all  classes.  He  died  at  Chicago  in  1884. 

One  Scotsman  whose  influence  is  still  felt  in  this  coun 
try,  although  not  on  account  of  any  practical  work  he 
did  while  in  it,  was  JphnJLoudon  Macadam.  He  was 
born  in  the  parish  of  Cars^liairn7TGrkcudbrightshire, 
according  to  the  article  in  the  Statistical  Account  of 
Scotland  on  the  parish  of  Carsphairn  by  the  Rev.  David 
Welsh.  Some  authorities  state,  however,  that  his  birth 
place  was  Ayr,  and  the  date  September  21,  1756,  and 
as  this  claim  is  also  put  forward  in  the  volume  of  the 
same  statistical  account  relating  to  that  country,  an  ex 
ample  is  afforded  of  how  even  an  authority  can  differ 
on  a  matter  on  which  no  such  confusion  should  exist. 
That  the  family  belonged  to  Carsphairn  there  is  no 
doubt,  however,  and  there  was  a  tradition  in  it  that  their 
original  name  was  MacGregor,  that  the  MacAdams  were 
descended  from  that  once  formidable  Highland  clan,  and 
that  the  patronymic  was  assumed  when  the  original  name 
was  proscribed  by  law.  Macadam  was  educated  at  May- 
bole,  and  when  a  young  man  was  sent,  on  the  death  of 
his  father,  to  an  uncle,  who  was  a  merchant  in  New 
York.  He  became  himself  a  successful  merchant,  but  as 
he  retained  his  loyalty  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  he 
lost  the  greater  part,  if  not  the  whole,  of  his  property. 
For  a  time  he  acted  as  agent  for  the  sale  of  prizes  at  the 
Port  of  New  York,  but  in  1783  was  compelled  to  leave 
the  country.  He  secured  an  appointment  in  England 
and  it  was  while  residing  at  Bristol  and  holding  the  office 
of  a  local  road  trustee  that  he  showed  his  genius  for 


INTRODUCTORY.  17 

roadmaking  and  put  into  effect  the  system  which  still 
bears  his  name  and  which  is  everywhere  recognized  as 
the  best  ever  conceived.  Its  principle  is  simply  to  have 
the  roadbed  made  level  and  to  cover  it  with  about  three 
inches  of  rock  broken  into  fragments  of  two  cubic  inches 
each.  The  fame  of  the  roads  built  under  his  superin 
tendence  and  according  to  his  ideas  quickly  spread  all 
over  England,  and  soon  he  and  his  sons  had  more  busi 
ness  on  hand  as  road  surveyors  and  builders  than  they 
could  easily  handle.  Mr.  Macadam's  last  years  were 
pleasantly  spent  in  Scotland,  where  he  was  recognized 
as  a  public  benefactor  and  as  a  generous-handed  friend 
to  the  poor.  He  refused  the  honor  of  knighthood,  which, 
however,  was  bestowed  on  one  of  his  sons,  and  in  1836 
passed  away  to  his  reward,  at  Moffat,  at  the  ripe  age  of 
eighty-one.  It  is  possible  that  it  was  the  wretched  con 
dition  of  the  roads  in  America,  and  the  fact  that  the 
means  to  improve  them  were  on  hand  on  every  side,  that 
first  turned  his  thoughts  to  the  subject  of  the  improve 
ment  of  public  highways.  America  was  slow  to  appre 
ciate  the  need  and  utility  of  anything  beyond  a  clearing 
being  required  for  a  highway,  but  now  tlipt  a  demand 
for  "  good  roads  "  has  sprung  up  all  over  the  continent, 
the  cry  for  "  macadamized "  streets,  boulevards  and 
thoroughfares  of  all  sorts  shows  that  the  lifework  of  this 
ingenious  Scot  has  become  an  important  factor  in  the 
current  thought  and  endeavor  of  the  land  where  he  once 
had  his  home  and  where  he  doubtless  intended  to  round 
out  the  entire  measure  of  his  existence. 

This  chapter  having  dealt  in  a  promiscuous  and  off 
hand  sort  of  way  with  a  few  representative  Scots  in  va 
ried  walks  of  life,  it  may  not  be  out  of  keeping  with  its 
tenor  to  introduce  here  notices  of  one  hero  who  owes  his 
prominence  mainly  to  the  caricature  of  a  novelist  and 
of  two  others  who  might  have  claimed  to  belong  to  the 
race,  although  they  are  not  generally  regarded  from  a 
Scotch  standpoint.  In  Smollett's  novel  of  "  Humphrey 
Clinker  "  a  peculiar  type  of  Scotsman  is  introduced— 
Lieutenant  Lismahago.  According  to  the  story,  this 
warrior,  while  serving  in  America,  was  captured  by  the 


THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 


French  and  escaped,  only  to  be  recaptured  by  a  tribe  of 
Indians.  The  treatment  Lismahago  and  his  companion 
in  misery  received  at  the  hands  of  their  savage  captors 
need  not  be  retailed  here,  but  its  harrowing  details  ended 
with  the  marriage  of  the  Lieutenant  to  Squinkinacoosta, 
the  princess  of  the  tribe.  "  The  Lieutenant,"  according  to 
the  novel,  "  had  lived  very  happily  with  his  accomplished 
squaw  for  two  years,  during  which  she  bore  him  a  son, 
who  is  now  the  representative  of  his  mother's  tribe;  but 
at  length,  to  his  unspeakable  grief,  she  had  died  of  a 
fever  occasioned  by  eating  too  much  raw  beef  which 
they  had  killed  on  a  hunting  excursion.  By  this  time 
Mr.  Lismahago  was  elected  Sachem,  acknowledged  first 
warrior  of  the  Badger  tribe,  and  dignified  with  the  name 
or  epithet  of  Occacanastaogarora,  which  signifies  '  nim 
ble  as  a  weasel.'  "  It  is  said  that  the  original  of  this  Cale 
donian-Indian  Chief  was  Richard  Stobo,  a  native  of  Glas 
gow,  where  his  father  was  a  wealthy  merchant.  He 
was  born  in  1724  and  about  1743  went  to  Virginia,  where 
he  engaged  in  business  but  without,  apparently,  meeting 
with  much  success.  He  held  a  good  social  position,  how 
ever,  and  probably  he  sacrificed  his  business  prospects 
to  further  his  military  ambition.  In  1754  he  was  appoint 
ed  Captain  in  a  regiment  that  w^as  raised  to  meet  the 
French  and  of  which  George  Washington  was  in  com 
mand.  It  was  (Stobd)  who  designed  the  works  which 
formed  the  strorlgHold  which  Washington  grimly  called 
"  Fort  Necessity,"  and  when  it  was  surrendered  btobo 
was  one  of  the  two  hostages  given  to  the  French.  While 
in  durance  at  Fort  Duquesne,  Stobo  kept  his  eyes  open, 
and  managed  to  send  to  his  own  side  of  the  lines  a  1< 
containing  a  plan  of  the  fort  and  suggestions  for  its  capt 
ure.  One  part  of  his  letter  "  breathes  a  loyal  and  ger 
erous  spirit  of  self-devotion,"  as  Washington  Irving  says 
in  his  life  of  the  first  American  President.  "  Consider 
the  good,"  Stobo  wrote,  "  of  the  expedition  without  re 
gard  to  us.  When  we  engaged  to  serve  the  country  it 
was  expected  we  were  to  do  it  with  our  lives.  For  my 
part  I  would  die  a  hundred  deaths  to  have  the  pleasure 
of  possessing  this  fort  for  one  day.  They  are  so  vain  of 


INTRODUCTORY.  19 

their  success  at  the  Meadows  it  is  worse  than  death  to 
hear  them.    Haste  to  strike." 

One  of  Stobo's  letters  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  capt 
ors,  and  as  a  result  he  and  his  fellow  captive  were  sent  to 
Quebec.  From  that  fortress  he  escaped,  was  captured, 
and  condemned  to  death  as  a  spy.  He  again  escaped, 
was  recaptured  after  three  days,  escaped  once  more  by 
means  of  a  birch  canoe,  and  in  thirty-eight  days,  after 
encountering  all  sorts  of  adventures,  reached  the  British 
forces  before  Louisbourg.  During  his  enforced  absence 
he  had  been  promoted  Major  in  his  Virginia  regiment, 
and  so  much  were  his  services  appreciated  and  his  suf 
ferings  pitied  that  the  Legislature  of  that  colony  voted 
him  a  grant  of  £1,300.  Going  to  England  in  1760  Stobo 
was  commissioned  Captain  in  the  Fifteenth  Infantry  and 
served  in  the  West  Indies.  Returning  to  England  in 
1770  he  settled  down  as  a  man  of  leisure,  cultivated  lit 
erature  and  the  friendship  of  literary  men,  among  oth 
ers  of  Tobias  JimoJlett,  and  published  a  little  book  de 
scriptive  of  his  adventures  in  America,  a  work  which  is 
now  very  rare.  How  much  of  Smollett's  descriptions  of 
penury  and  adventure  of  which  Lismahago  is  the  theme 
be  exactly  true,  we  cannot  of  course  determine,  but  it 
is  certainly  not  a  very  flattering  picture  for  one  friend 
to  draw  of  another,  to  say  nothing  of  the  existence  in  the 
heart  of  the  novelist  of  a  sentiment  of  national  pride 
which  might  have  induced  a  softening  of  the  sketch. 
Lockhart,  in  his  brilliant  life  of  Burns,  excuses  or  ac 
counts  for  this  peculiar  state  of  things  as  a  sort  of  def 
erence  to  the  prevailing  dislike  of  Scotsmen  entertained 
in  London  at  the  era  when  Smollett  w7rote.  "  A  still  more 
striking  sign  of  the  times/'  Lockhart  says,  "  is  to  be 
found  in  the  style  adopted  by  both  of  these  novelists, 
(Dr.  Moore  and  Smollett),  especially  the  great  masters 
of  the  art,  in  their  representations  of  the  manners  and 
characters  of  their  own  countrymen.  In  *  Humphrey 
Clinker,'  the  last  and  best  of  Smollett's  tales,  there  are 
some  traits  of  a  better  kind,  but,  taking  his  works  as  a 
whole,  the  impression  it  conveys  is  certainly  a  painful,  a 


20  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

disgusting  one.  *  *  *  When  such  high-spirited  Scot 
tish  gentlemen,  possessed  of  learning  and  talents,  and, 
one  of  them  at  least,  of  splendid  genius,  felt  or  fancied 
the  necessity  of  making  such  submissions  to  the  preju 
dices  of  the  dominant  nation,  and  did  so  without  excit 
ing  a  murmur  among  their  own  countrymen,  we  may 
form  some  notion  of  the  boldness  of  Burns's  experiment, 
and  in  contrasting  the  state  of  things  then  with  what  is 
before  us  now  it  will  cost  no  effort  to  appreciate  the  nat 
ure  and  consequences  of  the  victory  in  which  our  poet 
led  the  way,  by  achievements  never  in  their  kind  to  be 
surpassed." 

But  however  the  personality  of  the  doughty  Lieuten 
ant  may  be  obnoxious  to  us,  and  however  much  it  may 
belie  the  fair  name  or  distort  the  true  story  of  the  career 
of  Richard  Stobo,  many  originals  for  such  stories  may 
be  found  in  the  early  history  of  the  Indian  tribes  of 
North  America;  that  is,  their  early  history  so  far  as  their 
associations  with  Europeans  go.  One  of  the  more  noted 
chiefs  of  the  Creek  nation — one  of  the  most  powerful  on 
the  continent — in  the  eighteenth  century  was  Alexander 
McGillivray.  His  father  was  Lachlan  McGIITrvray,  a 
native  of  Mull  and  said  to  have  belonged  to  the  house 
of  McGillivray  of  Dunmaglas — a  branch  of  the  Clan 
Chattan — probably  on  account  of  the  same  degree  of 
relationship  that  makes  all  Stewarts  "  sib  "  to  the  King. 
Alexander's  mother  was  a  Creek  princess  whose  father 
had  been  a  French  officer  of  Spanish  descent,  so  that 
Alexander  had  Scotch,  Indian,  Spanish  and  French 
blood  in  his  veins,  and  as  his  uncle,  his  father's  brother, 
was  a  Presbyterian  minister  at  Charleston  and  a  mem 
ber  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society  there,  he  could  boast,  at 
least,  that  he  was  respectably  connected.  McGillivray 
was  a  genius,  a  born  diplomat,  a  natural  leader,  and  in 
time  became  acknowledged  as  the  supreme  head  of  his 
tribe.  He  was  by  turns  a  speculator,  merchant,  politi 
cian,  diplomatist,  and  always  a  warrior.  He  was  well 
educated,  his  early  years  having  been  passed  under  the 
care  of  his  uncle  the  clergyman,  and  it  was  expected 


INTRODUCTORY.  21 

that  he  would,  on  reaching  manhood,  cling  to  his  father's 
people.  But  he  preferred  his  maternal  relatives  and  re 
turned  to  the  haunts  and  adopted  the  ways  of  the  Indians 
so  completely  that  he  became  not  only  their  most  trusted 
leader,  but  the  virtual  autocrat  of  the  Creek  nation  and 
its  allies. 

McGillivray  once  visited  New  York,  in  1790,  in  his  ca 
pacity  of  leader  of  the  Creeks,  and  the  incidents  attend 
ing  that  visit  are  thus  told  in  Booth's  history  of  that  city, 
"  Colonel  Marinus  Willett  *  *  *  invited  McGillivray 
to  go  with  him  to  New  York  to  talk  with  the  Great 
Father.  To  this  proposal  McGillivray  consented,  and 
set  out  in  the  beginning  of  the  Summer,  accompanied 
by  twenty-eight  chiefs  and  warriors  of  the  nation.  Their 
arrival  excited  considerable  interest  in  the  city.  On 
landing  they  were  met  by  the  Tammany  Society,  arrayed 
in  Indian  costume,  which  escorted  them  to  their  lodgings 
on  the  banks  of  the  North  River,  at  the  tavern  known 
henceforth  as  '  The  Indian  Queen.'  Here  they  remained 
for  more  than  six  weeks,  negotiating  the  terms  of  a 
treaty  with  General  Knox,  and,  the  matter  being  at 
length  satisfactorily  arranged,  the  treaty  was  ratified  in 
true  Indian  style  in  Wall  Street  on  the  I3th  of  August, 
At  12  o'clock  the  Creek  deputation  was  met  by  the 
President  and  his  suite  in  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  where  the  treaty  was  read  and  interpreted, 
after  which  Washington  addressed  the  warriors  in  a 
short  but  emphatic  speech,  detailing  and  explaining  the 
justice  of  its  provisions;  to  each  of  which,  as  it  was  in 
terpreted  to  them,  McGillivray  and  his  warriors  gave  the 
Indian  grunt  of  approval.  The  treaty  was  then  signed 
by  both  parties,  after  which  Washington  presented  Mc 
Gillivray  with  a  string  of  wampum  as  a  memorial  of 
the  peace,  and  with  a  paper  of  tobacco  as  a  substitute 
for  the  ancient  calumet,  grown  obsolete  and  unattain 
able  by  the  innovations  of  modern  times.  McGillivray 
made  a  brief  speech  in  reply,  the  '  shake  of  peace  '  was 
interchanged  between  Washington  and  each  of  the 
chiefs,  and  the  ceremony  was  concluded  by  a  song  of 


22  ^HE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

peace,  in  which  the  Creek  warriors  joined  with  enthu 
siasm.  The  warriors  indeed  had  good  reason  to  be  sat 
isfied  with  this  treaty,  which  ceded  to  them  all  the  dis 
puted  territory  and  distributed  presents  and  money  lib 
erally  among  the  nation.  *  *  *  The  visit  of  the  In 
dians  closed  the  official  career  of  New  York  as  the  cap 
ital  city  of  the  United  States." 

According  to  all  accounts,  McGillivray  was  a  brave 
man,  had  wonderful  powers  of  endurance,'  and  possessed 
all  the  noted  Indian  traits  of  stolidity  and  deception  in 
abundance.  His  enemies  never  knew  very  well  what  to 
make  of  him,  but  all  courted  his  friendship  as  long  as 
possible,  and  he  was  probably  the  only  man  who  ever 
lived  who  at  one  and  the  same  time  was  a  British 
Colonel,  a  Spanish  General,  and  a  General  in  the  forces 
of  the  United  States.  With  all  his  brilliant  qualities, 
however,  he  had  few  admirers,  and  one  of  his  adversa 
ries,  Gen.  Robertson,  summed  up  his  character  in  these 
unmistakable  words:  "  The  Spaniards  are  devils,  but  the 
biggest  devil  among  them  is  the  half  Spaniard,  half 
Frenchman,  half  Scotsman,  and  altogether  Creek  scoun 
drel,  McGillivray."  This  redoubted  warrior  died  in  Flori 
da  in  1223- 

Quite  a  similar  case  in  many  ways  was  that  of  William 
Mclntosh,  another  Creek  chief,  who  was  born  in  Georgia 
in  1775.  His  father  was  a  Highland  officer  and  his 
mother  a  Creek  princess.  He  cast  in  his  lot  with  his 
mother's  tribe  and  became  its  chief.  During  the  war  of 
1812  he  fought  against  the  British  and  held  the  dignity 
of  Major  in  the  United  States  Army.  He  was  one  o"f  the 
first  Indians  to  perceive  that  the  white  man  had  taken 
possession  of  the  country  for  good,  and  the  policy  of  his 
life  seems  to  have  been  to  conciliate  the  whiteskins  and 
to  live  with  them  on  the  best  terms  attainable.  This  pol 
icy,  undoubtedly  the  most  far-sighted  and  prudent  that 
could  have  been  adopted,  led  to  his  death,  for  he  was 
assassinated  in  his  native  State  in  1825  by  some  Indians 
who  were  opposed  to  an  agreement  he  had  entered  into 


INTRODUCTORY.  23 

which  involved  the  selling  of  some  of  the  lands  held  by 
the  Creeks  to  the  United  States  Government. 

Many  weird  tales  are  yet  told  along  the  eastern  coast 
of  the  wild  doings  of  Capt.  Kidd,  many  romances  have 
been  evolved  out  of  his  career,  romances  which   have 
terrified  the  nursery  and  aroused  the  sympathetic  ardor 
of  lovers  of  fiction  in  the  parlor.    Thousands  of  dollars, 
too,  have  been  spent  in  the  search  after  Capt.   Kidd's 
treasures,  and  hardly  a  Summer  passes  without  bringing 
us  a  story  or  two  of  expeditions  being  organized.    Will- 
ia.ni  JCidd  was  born  at  Greenock  about  1650,  and  was,  it 
is  said,TnTT6n'oTa"cTergyman.  Of  his  early  training  and 
career  nothing  is  known.   The  first  authentic  glimpse  we 
get  of  him  is  from  the  records  of  the  New  York  Colonial 
Assembly   for     1691,   when     on   one    occasion    he    was 
thanked  for  services  rendered  the  commerce  of  the  col 
ony,  and  on  another  when  £150  was  voted  him  for  simi 
lar  services.     What  these  were  is  not  exactly  clear,  but 
it  has  been  surmised,  and  the  surmise  is  plausible,  that 
he  acted  as  a  sort  of  protector  to  the  coast  commerce 
from  pirates  and  unlawful  depredators.     In   1696,  Capt. 
Kidd  was  placed  by  Gov.  Bellamont  in  command  of  a 
vessel,  with  the  view  of  sweeping  the  coast  of  pirates, 
and  he  did  his  work  so  well  that  after  his  first  cruise  he 
was  awarded  a  fresh  grant  of  money,  this  time  of  £250. 
Then  he  started  on  another  cruise,  and  leaving  the  coast, 
started  out  as  a  pirate  on  his  own  account.    He  sailed  to 
the  Indian  Ocean,  made  Madagascar  his  headquarters, 
and    committed   such    depredations,    scuttling,    stealing, 
and  robbing  ships,  that  his  name  became  famous  and 
feared  throughout  the  maritime  world.     After  a  time  he 
returned  to  America,  and,  it  is  said,   had  any  number 
of  hiding  places  along  the  seaboard.     His  headquarters 
were,   however,  'mainly   on   Long   Island,   and   for   safe 
keeping  he  is  reported  to  have  buried  his  treasures  in 
different  localities,  but  where  has  been  the  puzzle  to  suc 
ceeding  generations  of  those  acquainted  by  reading  or 
tradition  with  his  career.    The  stories  in  connection  with 
this  section   of  Capt.  Kidd's  life  story  are  of  the  most 


24  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

vague  and  unintelligible  order,  but  the  following  from 
the  pen  of  Mr.  D.  W.  Stone  of  the  New  York  "  Commer 
cial  Advertiser  "  is  as  moderately  written  and  as  reliable 
as  anything  that  has  appeared: 

"  It  is  beyond  doubt  true  that  Long  Island  contained 
several  of  his  hiding  places.  '  Kidd's  Rock  '  is  well  known 
at  Manhasset,  up  on  Long  Island,  to  this  day.  Here  Kidd 
is  supposed  to  have  buried  some  of  his  treasures,  and 
many  have  been  the  attempts  of  the  credulous  in  that 
section  to  find  the  hidden  gold.  There  is  also  no  doubt 
that  he  was  wont  to  hide  himself  and  his  vessel  among 
those  curious  rocks  in  Sachem's  Head  Harbor,  called 
the  '  Thimble  Islands.'  In  addition  to  the  '  Pirates'  Cav 
ern/  in  this  vicinity,  there  is  upon  one  of  these  rocks, 
sheltered  from  the  view  of  the  Sound,  a  beautiful  artifi 
cial  excavation  in  an  oval  form,  holding,  perhaps,  the 
measure  of  a  barrel  still  called  '  Kidd's  Punch  Bowl.'  It 
was  here,  according  to  the  traditions  of  the  neighbor 
hood,  that  he  used  to  carouse  with  his  crew.  It  is  also  a 
fact  beyond  controversy  that  he  was  accustomed  to  an 
chor  his  vessel  in  Gardner's  Bay.  L^pon  an  occasion  in 
the  night  he  landed  upon  Gardner's  Island  and  requested 
Mrs.  Gardner  to  provide  a  supper  for  himself  and  his 
attendants.  Knowing  his  desperate  character,  she  dared 
not  refuse,  and,  fearing  his  displeasure,  she  took  great 
pains,  especially  in  roasting  a  pig.  The  pirate  chief  was 
so  pleased  with  her  cooking  that  on  going  away  he  pre 
sented  her  with  a  cradle  blanket  of  gold  cloth.  It  was 
of  velvet  inwrought  with  gold  and  very  rich.  A  piece  of 
it  yet  remains  in  the  possession  of  the  Gardner  family, 
and  a  still  smaller  piece  is  in  my  possession,  it  having 
been  given  to  my  father,  the  late  Col.  William  L.  Stone, 
by  one  of  the  descendants  of  that  family.  On  another 
occasion,  when  he  landed  upon  the  island,  he  buried  a 
small  casket  of  gold  containing  articles  of  silver  and 
precious  stones  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Gardner,  but  un 
der  the  most  solemn  injunctions  of  secrecy. 

"  Repairing,   soon   after   this   occurrence,   to    Boston, 
where  Lord  Bellamont  chanced  to  be  at  the  time,  he  was 


INTRODUCTORY.  25 

summoned  before  His  Lordship  and  ordered  to  give  a 
report  of  his  proceedings  since  he  had  sailed  on  his  sec 
ond  voyage.  Refusing,  however,  to  comply  with  this 
demand,  he  was  arrested  on  the  3d  of  July,  1699,  on  the 
charge  of  piracy.  He  appears  to  have  disclosed  the  fact 
of  having  buried  treasure  on  Gardner's  Island,  for  it 
was  demanded  by  the  Earl  of  Bellamont  and  surrendered 
by  Mr.  Gardner.  I  have  seen  the  original  receipts  for 
the  amount,  with  the  different  items  of  the  deposits. 
They  were  by  no  means  large,  and  afford  no  evidence  of 
such  mighty  k  sweepings  of  the  sea  '  as  have  been  told  of 
by  tradition.  Of  gold,  in  coins,  gold  dust  and  bars,  there 
were  750  ounces;  of  silver,  506  ounces,  and  of  precious 
stones,  1 6  ounces." 

But  there  are  hundreds  of  places  along  the  Hudson 
and  the  New  England  and  New  Jersey  coasts  where 
search  has  been  made  for  more  treasure,  and  at  Asbury 
Park  may  still  be  seen  steel  divining  rods  which  were 
once  used  by  experts  who  located  one  or  more  of  the 
pirate's  chests  where  Ocean  Grove  and  Bradley  Beach 
are  now  located. 

J\idd  was  sent  to  Britain  in  1701,  tried  for  piracy  on 
the  high  seas,  and  also  for  murder,  and,  with  six  of  his 
crew,  was  hanged  in  chains  at  Execution  Dock,  London, 
in  the  same  year.  The  news  of  his  fate  recalled  atten 
tion  to'  his  exploits,  the  notoriety  of  his  name  increased, 
and  rumor  magnified  his  daring,  his  crimes,  his  depreda 
tions  and  everything  connected  with  him  a  thousandfold, 
and  even  formed  themes  for  a  score  or  so  of  ballads.  So 
far  as  we  know,  he  was  the  only  Scottish-American  who 
ever  was  celebrated  by  the  rhymes  of  the  sheet  vocalist 
and  wandering  minstrels  of  the  curb  and  kitchen. 

Of  course,  nothing  can  be  said  in  defense  of  piracy, 
and  even  though  Kidd  was  guiltless  of  the  crime  of  mur 
der  or  of  any  of  the  acts  of  cruelty  and  barbarism  attrib 
uted  to  him,  his  course  as  an  adventurer  on  the  high  seas 
would  still  leave  his  memory  badly  tarnished.  Robbery 
is  plain,  vulgar  robbery,  whether  committed  on  land  or 
sea.  It  is  a  pity,  however,  that  more  of  the  history  of 


26  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

this  redoubtable  pirate  was  not  known,  for  we  are  con 
vinced  that  his  character  would  appear  in  a  more  amiable 
light  under  the  microscope  of  truth  than  it  seems  in  the 
misty  haze  of  tradition.  Indeed,  we  fancy  it  would  then 
be  seen  that  the  services  for  which  the  New  York  Legis 
lature  granted  him  gifts  of  money  were  really  little  short 
of  acts  of  piracy  in  whose  proceeds  they  shared  and 
which  they  negatively  authorized.  "  Connivance  at 
piracy,"  writes  Mr.  Ellis  H.  Roberts,  in  his  interesting 
volumes  on  the  history  of  the  State  of  New  York,  "  was 
a  charge  not  infrequent  against  prominent  persons  in  the 
Colonies  at  this  time  (around  1700).  Privateering  was 
encouraged  by  the  Government,  and  reputable  persons 
became  partners  in  vessels  sent  out  under  daring  sailors 
to  secure  prizes.  The  sailors  did  not  always  observe 
nice  distinctions  when  such  captures  were  possible,  and 
privateering  not  infrequently  fell  more  and  more  into 
audacious  piracy.  He  (Capt.  Kidd)  cannot 

have  deemed  himself  a  criminal  in  any  great  degree,  if 
at  all,  for,  after  selling  his  ship,  he  appeared  openly  in 
Boston,  where  the  Earl  of  Bellamont  recognized  him 
and  put  him  under  arrest."  The  trouble  with  Kidd  was  that 
the  stories  of  his  having  hidden  treasure  withdrew  from 
him  the  support  of  his  confederates  among  the  authori 
ties.  As  modern  Americans  would  say,  he  lost  his  "  pull," 
and  so  his  power.  In  considering  the  case  of  Capt.  Kidd 
we  should  remember  that  among  his  partners  in  his  pri 
vateering  expeditions  were  such  men  as  King  William, 
the  Earl  of  Bellamont,  and  Robert  Livingston,  and  while 
this  does  not  justify  Kidd's  conduct  in  any  way,  it  makes 
him  simply  a  spoke  in  a  wheel  of  corruption  evolved  by 
others  and  sanctioned  and  protected  in  high  places,  in 
stead  of  the  hub  of  a  wheel  which  he  had  cut  out  and 
fashioned  for  himself. 

We  cannot  close  this  chapter  with  such  a  dubious 
character  as  a  representative  of  the  nationality,  and  there 
fore,  as  a  sort  of  redeeming  offset,  turn  to  the  long  list 
of  heroes  for  an  example  or  two,  and  this  we  do  with  the 
more  readiness,  as  the  chapter  which  will  deal  with  heroes 


INTRODUCTOR.  27 

will  treat  mainly  of  those  who  fought  on  the  popular  side 
during  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  United  States  and  Canada, 
Highlanders,  as  we  have  seen  and  will  frequently  be  re- 
mindedTrPthe  course  of  this  volume,  were  welcomed  as 
settlers,  and  in  many  places,  as  in  Nova  Scotia,  Cape 
Breton,  Glengarry,  North  Carolina,  and  around  Cale 
donia,  N.  Y.,  as  well  as  in  other  localities,  the  direct  de 
scendants  of  these  pioneer  immigrants  from  Albyn  may 
yet  be  found.  In  many  places  they  yet  speak  the  lan 
guage  of  their  ancestors;  in  others  they  are  still  distin 
guished  by  their  manners,  their  ways,  their  industry, 
thrift,  and  godliness.  Several  bands  of  Highlanders  came 
over  here  in  military  service,  and  their  prowess,  endur 
ance,  skill,  and  intrepidity  are  freely  acknowledged  in 
the  ordinary  histories.  Such  was  notably  the  case  in 
Canada  with  Eraser's  Highlanders,  and  in  the  other  col 
onies,  as  well  as  in  America,  with  the  Black  Watch.  But 
there  were  other  Highland  soldiers  whose  deeds  were 
equally  worthy  of  record  with  those  generally  men 
tioned;  but  they  are  simply  spoken  of  as  Highlanders 
without  any  more  definite  designation. 

Such  was  the  case  with  as  gallant  a  band  as  ever  main 
tained  the  name  of  the  Scottish  soldier  in  foreign  lands — 
Montgomerie's  Highlanders.  Famous  as  they  were  in 
their  day,  they  are  now  practically  forgotten;  but  there 
are  few  commands  which  earned  a  better  record  as  sol 
diers  and  as  men.  They  were  formally  enrolled  as  the 
Seventy-seventh  Regiment,  and  were  only  in  existence 
some  six  years  when  they  were  disbanded.  Thus  in  glanc 
ing  over  their  career  we  can  start  out  with  them  on  their 
campaign  and  remain  with  them  until  their  flags  were 
finally  furled  without  undertaking  a  very  considerable 
task.  Their  history  is  a  brief  one;  but,  brief  as  it  is,  there 
is  no  lack  of  incident  in  the  story.  It  is  full  of  interest 
from  beginning  to  end  for  Highlanders  everywhere,  and 
particularly  for  all  who  love  to  read  about  the  early 
doings  of  the  Scot  in  America. 

In  1756,  after  considerable  wirepulling,  Major  Archi- 


28  THE     SCOT    IN     AMERICA. 

bald  Montgomerie  got  permission  to  raise  a  regiment  of 
Highlanders  for  service  in  North  America.  So  success 
ful  was  he  that  he  soon  was  at  the  head  of  a  body  of 
about  1,400  officers  and  men,  and  in  January,  1757,  he 
received  his  commission  as  Colonel.  Col.  Montgomerie 
was  a  military  man  of  great  promise  and  was  very  popu 
lar  among  all  classes.  He  was  a  son  of  the  ninth  Earl 
of  Eglinton,  and  ultimately  succeeded  to  that  title  him 
self.  His  father,  of  course,  was  a  nobleman,  but  he  was 
one  of  those  aristocrats  who  believed  the  country  was 
made  expressly  for  their  benefit.  He  was  a  shrewd  busi 
ness  man,  it  is  said,  made  three  fortunate  marriages, 
turned  everything  into  cash,  and  even  sold  his  vote  to 
England  for  £200,  at  the  time  the  Treaty  of  Union  was 
being  considered.  Col.  Montgomerie's  mother,  the  Coun 
tess  Susannah,  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  women  of 
her  time,  and  was  noted  for  her  wit  and  her  love  of  liter 
ature.  It  was  to  her  that  Allan  Ramsay  dedicated  his 
"  Gentle  Shepherd."  Col.  Montgomerie  appears  to  have 
inherited  the  qualities  which  made  his  mother  so  popular 
and  so  generally  beloved,  without  any  of  the  sordid  spirit 
which  was  his  father's  main  characteristic. 

The  regiment  embarked  at  Greenock  in  1758.  Its 
officers,  with  two  exceptions,  all  bore  good  old  Highland 
names — as  Grant,  Campbell,  Mackenzie,  Macdonald, 
and  the  like.  The  two  exceptions  were  the  Colonel  and 
his  young  kinsman,  Capt.  Hugh  Montgomerie,  who  in 
turn  succeeded  to  the  earldom.  The  regiment  landed 
at  Halifax  and  was  at  once  sent  en  route  to  Fort  Du- 
quesne  (Pittsburgh)  as  part  of  a  force  which  was  to  capt 
ure  that  stronghold  from  the  French  or  their  Indian 
allies.  It  was  a  terrible  journey  at  that  time,  but  the 
Highlanders  stood  its  fatigues  and  dangers  nobly, 
although  there  is  no  doubt  they  were  glad  when  they 
reached  Philadelphia  and  enjoyed  a  brief  season  of  rest 
in  its  new  and  comparatively  comfortable  barracks  be 
fore  starting  out  again  for  their  destination. 

The  Philadelphia  bnrracks  extended  between  Second 
and  Third  Streets,  from  St.  Tamany  to  Green  Street, 


INTRODUCTORY.  29 

and  the  buildings  were  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  hollow 
square.  The  officers'  section  faced  on  Third  Street,  and 
consisted  of  a  large  three-story  brick  house,  while  the 
soldiers'  quarters  were  two  stories  high,  and  of  wood, 
with  a  veranda  running  on  a  level  with  the  second  floor. 
In  the  centre  of  the  square  was  a  drillyard,  or  parade 
ground.  Many  Highland  regiments  were  quartered 
there  from  first  to  last,  and  at  times,  when  its  accommo 
dations  were  overtaxed,  the  officers  took  rooms  in  the 
house  of  a  Scotch  widow,  Mrs.  Cordon,  who  kept  a  high- 
class  boarding  establishment  for  many  years  on  Front 
Street.  It  is  said  that  at  one  time  her  house  was  filled 
with  the  officers  of  the  Forty-second  Highlanders.  The 
barracks,  which  seem  to  have  been  first  occupied  by 
Montgomerie's  regiment,  have  been  built  over  long  ago. 
The  expedition  against  Fort  Duquesne  was  an  im 
posing  one,  as  such  things  went  in  those  days.  Gen. 
Forbes  was  in  chief  command,  and  one  of  the  officers 
was  George  Washington,  who  rendered  good  service  by 
his  knowledge  of  the  country.  The  first  stopping  place 
for  more  than  a  night  was  Raystown,  ninety  miles  from 
the  fort.  From  there  a  smaller  expedition  was  sent  on  to 
Loyal  Hannen,  fifty  miles  from  Duquesne,  and  in  this 
expedition  were  Montgomeric's  Highlanders.  From 
Hannen  a  still  smaller  expedition  set  out  commanded  by 
James  Grant  of  Ballindalloch,  Major  in  the  Highland 
regiment.  He  had  with  him  some  400  of  his  own  com 
rades  and  500  Colonial  troops.  Having  no  knowledge 
of  Indian  warfare,  Major  Grant  advanced  upon  the  fort 
in  grand  style,  with  drums  beating  and  pipes  playing. 
The  soldiers  in  the  fort  made  a  gallant  resistance,  and 
being  helped  by  a  large  band  of  Indians,  poured  a  ter 
rible  fire  into  the  ranks  of  the  invaders,  while  they  them 
selves  were  protected  by  the  foliage  of  the  surrounding 
forest.  It  was  an  awful  massacre.  The  Highlanders  were 
unaccustomed  to  fight  an  unseen  enemy,  and  when  it  was 
found  useless  to  continue  the  contest  any  longer,  230  of 
them  were  lying  on  the  field,  dead  or  wounded.  Only  150 
made  their  wav  back  to  Loyal  Hannen.  Several  were 


;JO  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

taken  prisoners  by  the  Indians,  who  at  once  set  about 
killing  them  with  all  the  atrocities  for  which  those  red 
skins  were  famous.  After  seeing  a  dozen  of  his  comrades 
butchered  with  the  most  horible  cruelty,  one  of  the  High 
landers,  Allan  Macpherson,  revolved  a  little  scheme  in 
his  mind.  When  his  turn  came  he  told  his  captors  that 
he  knew  the  secret  of  an  herb,  which,  when  applied  to 
the  skin,  would  make  it  resist  the  strongest  blow  from 
sword,  knife,  or  tomahawk.  An  herb  of  this  sort  was  the 
very  thing  the  Indians  wanted,  and  they  agreed  to  let 
him  go  to  the  woods,  under  escort,  to  gather  the  herb, 
the  conditions  being  that  he  should  rub  the  stuff  on  his 
own  neck  and  so  prove  its  efficiency.  Macpherson  gath 
ered  some  roots,  boiled  them,  and  then,  anointing  his 
neck  with  the  liquid,  declared  himself  ready,  and  invited 
the  strongest  man  to  try  to  break  his  skin.  A  most 
powerful  Indian  stepped  forward  and  with  one  terrific 
blow  cut  Macpherson's  head  off,  and  sent  it  flying 
through  the  air  for  several  yards.  The  Indians  then  un 
derstood  that  the  Highlander  had  outwitted  them,  and 
escaped  the  lingering  death  to  which  he  had  been 
doomed.  It  is  said  that  they  were  so  pleased  with  his 
ingenuity  that  they  desisted  from  inflicting  further  cruel 
ties  upon  the  remaining  prisoners. 

Disastrous  as  was  the  fate  of  this  adventure,  the  de 
fenders  of  Fort  Duquesne,  however,  saw  that  they  had 
a  determined  force  to  deal  with,  and  so  when  the  mam 
bodv  of  the  invading  expedition  came  up  they  evacuated 
their  stronghold,  leaving  behind  them  their  cannon, 
stores,  and  provisions.  Gen.  Forbes,  on  taking  posses 
sion,  changed  the  name  of  the  place  to  Pittsburgh.  There 
the  Highlanders  enjoyed  another  respite  from  field  serv 
ice. 

In  May,  1759,  they  were  part  of  Gen.  Atnherst's  forces 
at  Ticonderoga,  and  along  Lake  Champlain  and  Lake 
George,  and  then  returned  to  Pennsylvania  and  marched 
in  fighting  order  as  far  as  the  border  of  Virginia.  Their 
numbers  during  these  campaigns  were  not  strengthened 
bv  recruits  from  Scotland  of  elsewhere;  but  they  certainly 


INTRODUCTORY.  31 

made  up  in  determination,  courage,  and  endurance  for 
their  want  of  numbers.  They  were  now  veteran  cam 
paigners,  and  as  careful  of  ambuscades  as  before  they 
were  careless.  They  understood  Indian  fighters  and 
methods  as  well  as  any  battalion  of  frontier  scouts.  As 
usual,  too,  with  Highland  regiments,  even  to  this  day, 
the  more  dangerous  and  difficult  the  task  the  more  cer 
tain  was  it  to  be  allotted  to  them  by  whoever  was  com 
mander  in  chief. 

Such  a  task  was  the  expedition  to  Martinique,  in  which 
Montgomerie's  Highlanders  and  the  Forty-second 
(Black  Watch)  next  took  the  most  important  part.  When 
that  trouble  was  over,  both  these  regiments  went  to  New 
York,  and  Montgomerie's  men  remained  there,  while  the 
Forty-second  was  sent  to  Albany.  Two  companies  of 
Montgomerie's  regiment,  which  had  previously  been  de 
tached  from  the  main  body,  had  formed  part  of  a  force 
which  was  sent  to  St.  John's,  Newfoundland,  to  capture 
that  town  from  the  French.  When  this  was  accomplished 
the  two  companies — or  what  was  left  of  them — rejoined 
the  rest  of  the  regiment  in  New  York,  where  the  Winter 
of  1762  was  passed.  Next  Spring  peace  was  declared  be 
tween  Great  Britain  and  France,  and  the  former  became 
mistress  of  the  French  colonies  in  America.  Then  Mont 
gomerie's  Highlanders  were  disbanded,  and,  while  some 
of  the  veterans  returned  to  their  "  ain  countrie,"  not  a 
few  took  advantage  of  the  offer  of  grants  of  land  and 
settled  in  America. 

Such  in  brief  is  the  story  of  an  old  Highland  regiment, 
whose  doings  are  well  worthy  of  being  recalled.  They 
who  fought  in  it  were  an  honor  to  the  country  which 
sent  them  forth,  and  their  deeds  at  Pittsburgh,  as  well 
as  at  Ticonderoga  and  elsewhere,  entitle  them  to  a  prom 
inent  place  in  the  long  list  of  Scotland's  military  heroes. 

It  would  be  an  interesting  study  to  follow  the  fortunes 
of  the  gallant  Black  Watch  in  North  America,  or  to 
relate  the  stirring  story  of  such  regiments  as  the  old 
Seventy-first,  but  such  records  would  occupy  a  volume 
in  telling,  and  even  a  recapitulation  of  them  would  swell 


32  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

this  work  beyond  due  proportions.  This  is  all  the  more 
unnecessary  as  the  records  of  such  commands  are  easily 
accessible. 

As  an  example  of  the  men  who  fought  in  these  com 
mands,  we  select  the  name  of  John  Small,  who  was  born 
at  Strathardale,  Perthshire,  in  1720,  and  died  at  Guernsey, 
with  the  rank  of  Major  General,  in  1796.  Early  in  life  he 
entered  the  army,  and  his  career  throughout  was  an 
eventful  one.  He  first  saw  service  with  the  Scotch  Brig 
ade  in  the  Dutch  Army,  and  then  received  an  ensigncy 
in  the  Black  Watch,  being  promoted  to  Lieutenant  soon 
after  joining  that  corps.  He  was  under  Abercombie  in 
the  attack  on  Ticonderoga  in  1758,  was  in  Montreal  two 
years  later,  and  then  went  to  the  West  Indies,  where  he 
won  his  Captaincy.  In  1775,  after  holding  a  commission 
for  a  short  time  in  the  Twenty-first  Regiment,  he  was 
commissioned  Major  in  the  Second  Battalion  of  the  regi 
ment  known  as  the  Royal  Highland  Emigrants,  raised 
in  Nova  Scotia  to  aid  the  Crown,  and  was  present  at  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  In  Trumbull's  painting  of  that 
skirmish,  Major  Small's  figure  occupies  a  prominent 
place.  This  regiment,  mention  of  which  is  again  made 
in  the  closing  chapter  of  this  volume,  was  named  the 
Eighty-fourth,  and  Small  was  continued  in  command  of 
the  Second  Battalion,  and  with  it  served  mainly  in  the 
State  of  New  York  under  Sir  Henry  Clinton.  The  regi 
ment  was  disbanded  in  1783,  after  the  conclusion  of  hos 
tilities,  and  many  of  the  officers  and  soldiers  in  Small's 
battalion  retired  to  Nova  Scotia,  where  they  received 
grants  of  land — 5,000  acres  to  a  field  officer,  3,000  to  a 
Captain,  500  to  a  subaltern,  200  to  a  Sergeant,  and  100 
to  a  private.  Before  leaving  America  Small  was  gazet 
ted  a  Lieutenant  Colonel  and  was  Military  Governor  of 
the  Island  of  Guernsey  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

So  much  for  an  officer.  In  an  old  issue  of  the  London 
magazine,  "  The  Humanitarian,"  we  read  an  account  of 
one  of  those  who  served  in  the  ranks  in  the  same  cam 
paign,  under  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  with  Major  Small.  As 
the  story  is  interesting,  we  quote  it  in  full: 


INTRODUCTORY.  33 

"An  old  Highland  soldier — Sergt.  Donald  Macleod, 
of  the  Forty-second  Highlanders — was  in  1791  an  out- 
pensioner  of  Chelsea  Hospital,  in  the  one  hundred  and 
third  year  of  his  age.  This  veteran  was  a  native  of  Skye, 
born  at  Ulinish  on  the  2Oth  of  June,  1688,  as  appears 
from  the  parish  register  of  Bracadale.  He  enlisted  in  the 
Royal  Scots,  and  his  first  campaign  was  under  Marl- 
borough  in  1704-13,  where  he  served  with  his  regiment 
in  the  battles  of  Blenheim,  Ramillies,  &c. ;  he  wras  in  the 
Hanoverian  Army  in  1715,  and  greatly  distinguished 
himself  against  his  own  countrymen  at  Sheriffmuir;  he 
then  saw  foreign  service  again  at  the  battle  of  Fontenoy ; 
after  this  we  find  that  he  was  in  America  under  Gen. 
Wolfe.  At  the  battle  of  Quebec  Sergt.  Macleod  had  his 
shin  bone  shattered  by  grape  shot,  and  received  a  mus 
ket  ball  in  his  arm;  but  when  Gen.  Wolfe  was  seriously 
wounded  the  old  soldier  offered  his  plaid,  in  which  his 
beloved  commander  was  borne  to  the  rear  by  four  Gren 
adiers.  Owing  to  his  wounds  Macleod  was  invalided, 
and  returned  to  England  in  November,  1759,  in  the 
frigate  that  bore  the  body  of  Gen.  Wolfe.  On  arriving 
in  England  he  was  admitted  an  out-pensioner  of  Chelsea 
Hospital  on  the  4th  of  December,  1759.  His  wounds 
soon  healed,  and  he  went  on  a  recruiting  expedition  to 
the  Highlands,  where  he  married  his  third  wife.  Although 
now  seventy-two  years  of  age,  he  again  took  to  the  wars 
on  the  outbreak  of  hostilities,  and  served  as  a  volunteer 
under  Col.  Campbell  on  the  Continent,  and  in  the  course 
of  different  engagements  during  the  campaign  of  1760-61 
he  was  wounded  several  times.  Even  these  hard  knocks 
were  not  sufficient  to  end  the  old  man's  military  career, 
as  we  find  him  again  in  America  under  Sir  Henry  Clin 
ton." 

Passing  over  the  kittle  times  of  the  Revolution  and 
the  War  of  1812,  v/e  find  many  instances  of  the  continui 
ty  of  the  heroic  side  of  the  story  of  Scotland's  sons  in 
America.  Take  the  career  of  CoL— Lohn  Munroe  as  one^-^I 

ton     cnrm 


which  is  an  example  of  a  thousand  others,  too   soon, 
alas,  forgotten.    Munroe  was  born  in  Ross-shire  in  1796 


34  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

and  settled  in  America  with  his  parents  when  a  boy.  In 
1814  he  graduated  at  West  Point  and  was  appointed  to 
the  United  States  Army  as  a  Third  Lieutenant.  Promo 
tion  in  Uncle  Sam's  Army,  except  at  fortunately  rare 
intervals,  is  rather  slow,  and  it  was  not  till  1825  that 
Munroe  received  his  commission  as  Captain.  In  1838, 
for  brilliant  services  against  the  Florida  Indians,  he  was 
brevetted  Major,  and  in  1846  was  appointed  Major  in 
the  Second  Artillery.  That  same  year  he  was  Gen.  Zachary 
Taylor's  Chief  of  Artillery,  and  was  brevetted  Lieutenant 
Colonel  for  gallantry  at  Monterey,  and  Colonel  for  his 
services  at  Buena  Vista.  For  over  a  year  (1849-50)  he 
was  military  and  civil  Governor  of  New  Mexico,  and 
made  an  admirable  Executive.  After  retiring  from  the 
army  he  took  up  his  residence  in  New  Brunswick  and 
died  there  in  1861. 

This  warrior's  death  brings  us  down  to  the  opening  of 
the  great  civil  war — a  conflict  in  which,  on  both  sides, 
Scotsmen  exhibited  the  native  valor  of  their  country.  We 
cannot  even  estimate  the  number  of  Scotsmen  who  took 
part  in  that  political  convulsion — possibly  50,000  would 
be  under  the  mark — as  the  volunteer  records  at  Washing 
ton  do  not  define  nationality.  But  it  is  acknowledged  on 
all  sides  that  Scotsmen  did  their  full  duty  according  to 
their  consciences,  whether  they  wore  blue  or  gray. 

One  of  the  earliest  commands  to  answer  the  call  of 
President  Lincoln  was  the  Highland  Guard  of  Chicago, 
which  was  originally  formed  in  1855.  It  commenced  its 
term  of  active  service  in  1861,  under  Capt.  J.  T.  Ratten, 
and  made  a  brilliant  record.  Its  first  commander  was 
John  McArthur,  who  was  born  at  Erskine  in  1826,  and 
was  origifrally^a  boilermaker.  In  the  civil  war  he  bore 
himself  with  great  gallantry  and  rose  step  by  step  until 
he  was  brevetted  Major  General  at  the  battle  of  Nashville 
for  conspicuous  bravery.  After  the  war  he  returned  to 
Chicago  and  entered  into  business,  which  was  inter 
rupted  by  his  four-year  term  of  service  as  Postmaster 
of  Chicago,  an  office  he  administered  with  great  tact  and 
executive  ability. 


INTRODUCTORY.  35 

Another  Scotsman  who  rose  to  the  rank  of  General  in 
the  civil  war  was  Gen..  James  Lorraine  Geddes,  who  died 
at  Ames,  Iowa,  in  1887.  There  were  many,  very  many, 
Scotch  field  officers  in  the  war,  so  many  that  it  seems 
somewhat  invidious  to  single  out  any  one,  but  Gen. 
Geddes  had  such  a  varied  career  and,  on  the  whole,  was 
so  typically  representative  of  the  Scot  abroad  that  we 
cannot  refrain  from  relating  its  most  salient  points.  It 
is  very  few  nationalities  that  can  point  to  a  son  who 
begins  life  as  a  private  soldier  and  ends  as  the  President 
of  a  college.  Geddes  was  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1829, 
and  in  1837  was  taken  by  his  father  to  Canada.  As  soon 
as  he  was  old  enough,  after  he  had  received  his  school 
ing,  he  went  to  sea.  But  he  soon  got  tired  of  that  life, 
and,  while  in  Calcutta,  enlisted  in  the  Royal  Artillery. 
He  fought  under  Sir  Charles  Napier  and  Sir  Colin  Camp- 
pell  in  the  Crimea,  and  received  the  regulation  silver 
medal  and  clasp.  When  he  was  discharged  he  made  his 
way  back  to  Canada,  where  after  a  time,  he  was  elected 
Colonel  in  a  local  cavalry  organization.  In  1857  he  left 
the  Dominion  and  settled  at  Vinton,  Iowa,  where  he  got 
employment  as  a  teacher.  When  the  civil  war  broke  out 
he  enlisted  (Aug.  8,  1861,)  as  a  private  in  the  Eighth 
Iowa  Volunteers,  and  went  to  the  front.  His  promotion, 
as  might  be  expected  from  his  past  experience,  was 
rapid,  and  by  1865  he  had  passed  upward  through  all  the 
intermediary  grades  and  was  brevetted  a  Brigadier  Gen 
eral.  He  was  wounded  at  Shiloh,  and  was  once  taken 
prisoner,  but  soon  exchanged,  and  he  served  under 
Grant  at  Vicksburg  and  under  Sherman  at  Jackson, 
Miss.  While  acting  as  Provost  Marshal  at  Memphis,  he 
saved  that  city  from  being  taken  by  the  Confederate 
forces  under  Gen.  Forrest,  and  during  the  Mobile  cam 
paign  his  capture  of  Spanish  Fort  was  regarded  as  the 
most  brilliant  feat  of  that  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
great  interstate  struggle.  When  the  war  was  over 
Gen.  Geddes  returned  to  Vinton,  and  for  some  time  had 
charge  of  the  blind  asylum  there,  but  his  later  years  were 
identified  with  the  Iowa  College,  at  Ames,  in  which, 


36  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

besides  directing  in  an  executive  capacity,  he  was  Treas 
urer  and  Professor  of  Military  Tactics.  He  was  a  poet 
as  well  as  a  soldier  and  teacher,  and  wrote  several  popu 
lar  war  songs,  among  which  "  The  Soldiers'  Battle 
Prayer  "  and  "  The  Stars  and  Stripes  "  are  still  remem 
bered  and  have  won  a  place  among  the  national  songs 
of  America. 

This  record  of  men  of  war  may  fittingly  terminate  with 
a  reference  to  the  Seventy-ninth  Highlanders  of  New 
York,  which  made  a  record  worthy  of  auld  Scotia  in  the 
civil  war.  The  nucleus  of  this  command  was  a  company 
called  the  Highland  Guard,  which,  with  uniforms  pat 
terned  after  those  of  the  Black  Watch,  used  to  delight  the 
eyes  of  the  Scotch  residents  of  New  York  in  the  fifties. 
The  regiment  was  practically  organized  in  1861  and 
promptly  offered  its  services  to  the  national  Government. 
It  was  accepted,  and  it  fought  through  the  entire  strug 
gle,  "  fighting  more  battles  and  marching  more  miles 
than  any  other  New  York  regiment,"  as  the  State  record 
sums  up  its  story.  Its  first  Colonel,  Cameron,  was  killed 
at  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  and  it  was  afterward  com 
manded  by  several  noted  officers.  On  the  conclusion  of 
peace  the  regiment  returned  to  New  York,  was  mustered 
out  of  service  and  at  once  enrolled  as  a  State  regiment 
of  militia.  It  was  finally  mustered  out  in  1875,  when 
under  the  command  of  Col.  Joseph  Laing,  a  native  of 
Edinburgh,  and  a  good  soldier.  The  deeds  of  this  gallant 
regiment  have  been  fully  told  in  a  portly  volume,  and 
thus  a  knowledge  of  the  details  of  its  campaigns  is  fairly 
on  record  and  can  be  read  by  all  Scots  who  desire  addi 
tional  topics  for  illustration  of  Scottish  heroism  on 
American  soil. 

Probably  the  central  figure  of  the  Seventy-ninth  High 
landers — the  fighting  Seventy-ninth — during  the  war 
was  Col.  David  Morrison,  who  died  in  New  York  in 
Februa>yrT8cjo'.  His  career  is  an  illustration  of  that  of 
hundreds  of  good  men  who  took  up  arms  in  response  to 
the  call  from  Washington  at  the  outbreak  of  the  civil 
war.  David  Morrison  was  born  at  Glasgow  in  1823,  and 


INTRODUCTORY.  37 

learned  the  trade  of  a  brassfounder.  After  a  short  term 
in  the  British  Army,  Morrison  settled  in  New  York  and 
soon  started  in  business.  When  the  war  broke  out  he 
went  with  the  Seventy-ninth  to  the  front  as  one  of  its 
Captains,  and  steadily  rose  until  he  was  made  Colonel, 
and  commanded  the  regiment.  He  proved  a  brilliant 
leader  and  his  personal  bravery  was  beyond  question. 
His  men  loved  him,  trusted  him,  and  executed  whatever 
order  he  gave  unquestioningly,  and  he  was  the  personal 
friend  of  every  man  who  marched  under  the  Seventy- 
ninth's  banners.  He,  with  the  regiment,  and  while  acting 
as  commander  of  a  brigade,  took  part  in  many  battles 
and  skirmishes,  and  the  story  of  their  campaigns  is  one 
of  the  most  wonderful  in  the  history  of  the  conflict.  When 
the  struggle  was  over,  Col.  Morrison  returned  to  New 
York  with  the  brevet  rank  of  Brigadier  General,  and 
again  resumed  his  business,  prospering  day  after  day — as 
he  deserved.  Except  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  Seventy- 
ninth  veterans,  or  a  St.  Andrew's  Society  dinner,  he  de 
voted  his  spare  time  to  his  home  and  family,  and  was 
rarely  seen  at  public  gatherings.  But  he  gave  away 
liberally  in  charity,  and  many  a  war  veteran  was  helped 
over  an  emergency  by  his  thoughtful  generosity.  "  A 
brave  soldier,  a  good  man,  and  a  Christian  gentle 
man  "  was  what  one  of  his  comrades  said  in  speaking  of 
his  merits  when  the  news  of  his  death  became  public,  and 
a  whole  volume  of  anecdote  could  not  more  fittingly  or 
truthfully  describe  the  man. 

We  give  one  anecdote,  as  it  occurred  long  after  the  tie 
between  Gen.  Morrison  and  the  Seventy-ninth  had  be 
come  merely  one  of  sentiment,  and  shows  that  his  heart 
continued  warm  to  his  old  comrades  until  the  end,  for 
the  incident  occurred  only  a  few  years  before  his  death. 
"  A  year  or  two  ago,"  says  our  informant,  writing  in 
1896,  "  the  members  of  old  St.  Andrew's  Division  in  the 
course  of  their  temperance  work,  learned  of  the  case  of 
an  old  member  of  the  Seventy-ninth  Regiment  who  was 
steadily  '  going  down  into  the  depths  '  from  a  love  for 
liquor.  The  man  held  a  fair  social  position,  had  a  lux- 


38  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

uriously  furnished  home,  a  good  business,  and  but  for 
'  the  drink  '  would  have  had  a  happy  life  all  round.  The 
St.  Andrew's  men  who  were  interested  in  the  case  plead 
ed  with  the  man,  but  to  no  avail.  Then  it  was  suggested 
that  Gen.  Morrison  should  be  told  of  the  matter  and  his 
aid  invoked.  The  trouble  was  laid  before  him  and  he  at 
once  willingly  volunteered  to  accompany  the  division 
folk  on  a  night  that  was  designated.  When  the  night 
arrived,  however,  it  was  feared  that  the  General  would 
not  turn  up.  It  was  one  of  those  Winter  evenings  when 
it  was  raining  one  minute,  freezing  the  next,  and  with  an 
interval  of  sleet  between.  The  streets  were  slippery,  the 
rain  was  drenching,  and  those  who  knew  how  fond  Gen. 
Morrison  was  of  his  home  did  not  believe  it  possible  that 
he  would  venture  out.  But,  exact  to  the  moment  agreed 
upon,  he  turned  up  at  the  home  of  the  then  head  of  the 
division,  Mr.  Thomas  Cochrane,  plumber,  a  native  of 
Glasgowr,  and  when  wronder  was  expressed  at  his  pres 
ence  under  the  circumstances  he  said  he  felt  that  a  duty 
had  been  assigned  to  him  and  it  would  take  queer 
weather  to  make  him  fail.  It  was  not  long  before  we 
were  in  the  home  of  the  man  we  \vere  trying  to  aid,  and 
without  any  preliminary  fencing,  the  General  quietly 
opened  fire.  He  did  not  say  much,  but  what  he  did  say 
was  so  sincere,  so  evidently  from  the  heart,  that  in  a  very 
short  tinie  the  man  was  in  tears  and  promised  not  only 
to  abstain,  but  to  join  the  division.  We  do  not  wish  to 
repeat  wrhat  was  said,  for  the  proceedings  wrere  private, 
but  we  never  heard  a  shorter  or  better  temperance  lect 
ure  than  the  General  gave.  It  was  practical,  kindly,  and 
touching.  After  the  promise  was  given  we  spent  a  very 
happy  night,  and  when  we  were  escorting  the  General  to 
the  cars  he  expressed  the  pleasure  he  would  feel  if  he 
thought  he  had  been  of  service,  and  said  St.  Andrew's 
Division  had  a  right  to  call  on  him  or  any  one  else  to 
help  in  its  work.  Perhaps  had  New- York  contained  more 
Scotsmen  of  his  stamp  the  division  might  have  been 
alive  to-day.  The  strange  thing  was  that  none  of  us  ever 
questioned  \vhether  Gen.  Morrison  was  himself  a  teeto- 


INTRODUCTORY.  3S 

taller  or  not.  We  had  implicit  faith  that  he  would  help 
us  to  do  what  was  right  and  that  such  a  faith  existed  is 
as  green  a  wreath  as  can  be  placed  on  the  grave  where 
now,  alas !  rest  his  honored  remains." 

It  is  interesting  to  know  how  widely  scattered  become 
the  members  of  a  command  like  the  Seventy-ninth  after 
fighting  together  for  nearly  four  years  in  defense  of  the 
Union.  The  veterans'  organization  of  the  old  soldiers  of 
the  regiment  numbers  168  members  at  present.  The 
number  is  decreasing  yearly,  but  that,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  is  to  be  expected.  The  following  notes  of  the 
present  whereabouts  and  standing  of  several  of  the  best 
known  of  the  veterans  is  taken  from  the  "  New  York 
Scottish-American,"  the  information  being  called  forth 
in  connection  with  the  death  of  Gen.  Morrison.  "Col. 
Joseph  Laing  was  Captain  of  G  Company  when  the 
regiment  first  went  to  the  front.  He  was  wounded  on 
several  occasions — once  severely — and  his  comrades  are 
unanimous  in  bearing  testimony  to  the  pluck  and 
soldierly  qualities  he  shewed  on  the  field.  His 
place  of  business,  at  the  corner  of  Fulton  and 
Water  Streets,  this  city,  where  he  is  an  engraver 
and  print-seller,  has  long  been  a  house  of  call,  both 
for  old  members  of  the  regiment  and  soldiers  belonging 
to  other  corps.  Col.  A.  D.  Baird  is  a  prosperous 
citizen  of  Brooklyn.  A  few  years  ago  he  was  the  Re 
publican  candidate  for  Mayor,  and  at  present  he  is  a 
Commissioner  for  the  new  East  River  bridge-  Along 
with  his  son,  he  carries  on  extensive  stone  works  in  the 
Eastern  District.  He  is,  now  that  Gen.  Morrison  has 
gone,  the  association's  best  friend.  Capt.  Robert  Armour, 
again,  is  at  the  head  of  an  important  bureau  in  the  Quar 
termasters  Department  of  the  War  Office  at  Washing 
ton.  Mr.  Crammond  Kennedy,  the  Chaplain  of  the  regi 
ment,  who  was  once  known  as  the  "  boy  preacher,"  now 
practices  law  with  success  at  the  national  capital.  Major 
Hugh  Young,  who  is  a  resident  of  this  city,  has  acquired 
a  competency  from  a  patent  of  his  invention  which  is 
used  in  all  stone  yards.  Dr.  David  McKay  has  a  good 


40  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

practice  as  a  physician  in  Dallas,  Texas,  and  Dr.  Charles 
E.  Locke  is  the  owner  of  silver  mines  in  Colorado,  and 
a  member  of  the  State  Senate.  Lieut.  D.  G.  Falconer, 
who  lost  a  leg  in  the  war,  is  a  prominent  lawyer  in  Lex 
ington,  Ky.  Mr.  Thomas  Moore,  who  was  President  of 
the  association  wrhen  it  visited  Louisville,  is  a  manu 
facturer  of  horse  collars  in  Pearl  Street,  this  city.  He  is 
prominent  in  the  Masonic  fraternity,  and  has  been  hon 
ored  with  some  high  offices  in  the  brotherhood,  being  at 
present  Trustee  of  its  hall  and  asylum.  William  Webster, 
who  was  a  private  in  the  regiment,  went  after  the  war  to 
the  Old  Country,  and  became  a  Captain  in  the  Cold- 
stream  Guards,  a  position  which  he  only  recently  re 
signed.  Mr.  John  Spence,  who  was  also  a  private,  has  a 
large  and  profitable  plumbing  business  in  the  upper  part 
of  this  city.  Sergt.  James  McLean  is  a  manufacturer  of 
ice-boxes  and  butchers'  fixtures,  his  \vorks  being  in  Elev 
enth  Avenue.  Private  John  H.  Grant  was  for  more  than 
twenty-five  years  a  police  Sergeant,  and  is  now  Acting 
Captain  at  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fifth  Street.  Sergt. 
Major  Joseph  Stewart,  having  faithfully  served  the  city 
for  more  than  twenty  years  in  the  Police  Department,  is 
now  a  retired  Sergeant,  and  a  respected  and  trusted  em 
ploye  of  the  Nassau  Trust  Company  of  Brooklyn.  A 
good  number  of  the  other  members  also  reside  in  this 
city  and  neighborhood,  among  them  Adjt.  Gilmour,  is 
connected  with  the  business  of  his  father-in-law,  the  late 
Gen.  Morrison;  Capt.  John  Glendinning  is  employed  by 
the  Board  of  Works,  Capts.  Thomas  Barclay,  F.  W. 
Judge,  and  Robert  Gair  live  in  Brooklyn;  Capt.  William 
Clark  is  employed  in  the  Post  Office  here,  Lieut.  John  S. 
Dingwall  resid'es  up  town,  and  Mr.  J.  S.  Martin,  popu 
larly  known  as  *  Crackers,'  keeps  his  comrades  in 
a  state  of  merriment  at  all  their  social  gatherings.  Mr. 
Malcolm  Sinclair,  who  was  well  known  here,  is  now  at 
Cumberland,  Md.  The  rest  of  the  veterans  are  scattered 
far  and  wide  over  the  country.  There  are  a  good  number 
in  Staten  Island,  several  in  Chicago,  some  in  the  Soldiers' 
Homes  at  Hampton,  Va.,  Kearny,  N.  J.,  or  elsewhere. 


INTRODUCTORY.  41 

Some  are  living  happily  with  their  friends  the  enemy 
down  in  Dixie,  while  Middletown,  Conn.,  Syracuse,  N. 
Y.,  Auburn,  Neb.,  Denver,  Col.,  Davenport,  Iowa,  Pitts 
burgh,  Penn.,  Sterling,  Kan.,  and  various  other  places 
are  among  the  addresses  found  on  the  roster.  Wherever 
they  are  they  are  all  animated  by  one  feeling — that  of 
pride  in  the  record  of  their  old  regiment/' 

The  names  mentioned  in  this  rambling  introductory 
chapter  will  give  an  idea  of  the  ramifications  and  ways 
through  which  the  history  of  the  Scottish  race  in  Amer 
ica  is  to  be  traced.  The  men  we  have  already  spoken  of 
are  mainly  random  instances,  but  all,  even  the  Scoto- 
Indian  chiefs,  did  something  toward  making  the  country 
what  it  is  to-day.  As  we  proceed  we  will  find  much  more 
direct  and  important  examples  of  the  influence  of  the 
nationality  and  of  the  good  work  that  influence  accom 
plished.  It  is  a  knowledge  that  Scotsmen  have  done  their 
share  in  building  up  the  great  Republic  that  makes  them 
proud  of  its  progress  and  inspires  them  to  add  to  its 
glories  and  advantages  in  every  way.  Scotsmen,  as  a 
nationality,  are  everywhere  spoken  of  as  good  and  loyal 
citizens,  while  Americans  who  can  trace  a  family  residence 
of  a  century  in  the  country  are  proud  if  they  can  count 
among  their  ancestors  some  one  who  hailed  from  the 
land  of  Burns,  and  it  is  a  knowledge  of  all  this,  in  turn, 
that  makes  the  American  Scot  of  to-day  proud  of  his 
country's  record  and  his  citizenship  and  impels  him  to  be 
as  devoted  to  the  new  land  as  it  \vas  possible  for  him  to 
have  been  to  the  old  had  he  remained  in  it.  In  America, 
the  oil  traditions,  the  old  blue  flag  with  its  white  cross, 
the  old  Doric,  are  not  forgotten,  but  are  nourished,  and 
preserved,  and  honored,  and  spoken  by  Scotsmen  on 
every  side  with  the  kindliest  sentiments  on  the  part  of 
those  to  whom  they  are  alien.  Americans  know  and  ac 
knowledge  that  the  traditions  and  flag  and  homely 
speech  have  long  been  conserved  to  the  development 
of  that  civil  and  religious  liberty  on  which  the  great  con 
federation  of  sovereign  republican  States  has  been  found 
ed,  In  the  United  States,  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  more  read- 


42 


THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA 


ers  and  quite  as  enthusiastic  admirers  as  in  Scotland 
and  if  Americans  were  asked  which  of  the  world's  poets 
came  nearest  to  their  hearts,  the  answer  would  undoubt 
edly  be — Robert  Burns. 


CHAPTER     II. 

PIONEERS. 

AS  might  be  expected  of  a  race  which  began,  so  far 
as  we  know  to  the  contrary,  in  Greece,  sojourned  in 
Egypt,  Portugal,  and  other  places,  and  at  present  has 
its  headquarters  in  the  northern  portion  of  the  island 
of  Great  Britain,  the  Scots  early  began  to  turn  their  at 
tention  to  America.  Indeed,  it  has  been  gravely  argued 
that  America  was  really  discovered  long  before  Colum 
bus  was  heard  of  by  a  band  of  Scotch  mariners  who 
were  driven  by  stress  of  weather  on  the  coast  of  New 
foundland,  and  a  full  account  of  the  discovery  now  re 
poses  in  the  "  transactions  "  of  some  learned  society.  It 
is  alleged  that  the  mariners'  boat  was  too  much  battered 
by  the  waves  to  be  of  any  more  practical  service  out  at 
sea,  and  as  the  Scots  got  a  hearty  welcome  from  the 
natives  they  concluded  there  was  no  use  of  struggling 
with  wind  and  weather  any  longer  and  they  settled  down, 
were  adopted  by  the  aborigines,  and  married  among 
them.  The  Captain,  as  was  natural,  married  a  princess. 
Most  all  Europeans  of  whom  we  have  record  who  mar 
ried  into  Indian  families  got  princesses  for  their  brides, 
and  from  that  we  infer  that  princesses  were  more  plenti 
ful  than  were  young  women  of  ordinary  degree.  Had 
the  Captain  only  written  home  an  account  of  the  ad 
ventures  of  himself  and  his  crew,  what  priceless  docu 
ments  the  epistles  would  have  been  to-day!  His  name 
would  have  been  revered  as  the  discoverer  of  America, 
while  we  would  have  been  erecting  statues  in  his  honor 
and  celebrating  his  anniversary!  But  he  missed  his  op 
portunity,  and,  as  Scotsmen,  Scotsmen  abroad  especially, 
43  " 


44  THE     SCOT    IN     AMERICA. 

very  seldom  do  that,  we  are  rather  inclined  to  doubt  the 
whole  story. 

Mr.  J.  M.  Le  Moine,  in  his  interesting  paper  on  "  The 
Scot  in  New  France,"  suggests  that  among  Carder's 
crew,  when  that  discoverer  made  his  first  acquaintance 
with  Canada,  were  several  Scots  seamen.  "  Herue, 
Henry,"  he  says,  "  seems  to  us  an  easy  transmutation  of 
Henry  Herue,  or  Hervey."  Again,  in  reference  to  an 
other,  he  remarks  that  "  Michel  Herue  sounds  mightily 
in  our  ears  like  Michael  Harvey,  one  of  the  Murray  Bay 
Harvey s  of  Major  Nairn."  With  reference  to  the  facility 
with  which  names  may  be  changed  or  adapted  to  cir 
cumstances,  Mr.  Le  Moine  gives  an  illustration  which 
came  under  his  own  observation.  "  We  once  knew,  at 
Cap  Rouge,  near  Quebec,  a  worthy  Greenock  pilot 
whose  name  was  Tom  Everell.  In  the  next  generation 
a  singular  change  took  place  in  his  patronymic ;  it  stood 
transformed  thus:  Everell  Tom.  Everell  Tom  in  the 
course  of  time  became  the  respected  sire  of  a  numerous 
progeny  of  sons  and  daughters — Jean  Baptiste  Tom, 
Norbert  Tom,  Henriette  Tom,  and  a  variety  of  other 
Toms." 

In  the  same  interesting  monograph,  Mr.  Le  Moine 
brings  to  our  notice  a  veritable  Scotch  pioneer  in  the 
following  words:  "Who  has  not  heard  of  the  King's 
St.  Lawrence  pilot,  Abraham  Martin  dit  FEcossais — 
Abraham  Martin  alias  the  Scot.  Can  there  be  any  room 
for  uncertainty  about  the  nationality  of  this  old  salt — 
styled  in  the  Jesuits'  '  Journal '  '  Maitre  Abraham/  and 
who  has  bequeathed  his  name  to  our  world-renowned 
battlefield  (the  Plains  of  Abraham).  *  *  *  The  ex- 
haustless  research  of  our  antiquarians  has  unearthed  cu 
rious  particulars  about  this  Scotch  seafaring  man — the 
number,  sex,  and  age  of  his  children;  his  speculations  in 
real  estate;  his  fishing  ventures  in  the  Lower  St.  Law 
rence.  Sometimes  we  light  on  tid-bits  of  historical  lore 
anent  Master  Abraham  not  very  creditable  to  his  mo 
rality.  Once  he  gets  into  chancery;  as  there  is  no  ac 
count  of  his  being  brought  to  trial,  let  us  hope  the 


PIONEERS.  45 

charge  was  unfounded — a  case  of  blackmail  originated 
by  some  '  loose  and  disorderly '  character  of  that  period 
or  by  a  spiteful  policeman.  On  September  8,  1664,  the 
King's  pilot  closed  his  career  at  the  ripe  age  of  seventy- 
five." 

There  is,  however,  something  mythical  and  unsatis 
factory  in  all  we  know  of  this  industrious  and  enterpris 
ing  personage,  and  we  turn  with  satisfaction  to  consider 
a  greater  man  in  every  respect,  although  by  a  curi 
ous  freak  of  fortune  his  name  has  not  been  immortalized 
by  any  world-renowned  landmark  like  the  Plains  of 
Abraham.  This  was  the  Earl  of  Stirling,  in  many  ways 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  men  of  his  time,  a  man 
who  was  restless  in  his  activity,  who  won  fame  in  many 
walks  of  life,  who  was  one  of  the  most  extensive  land 
owners  of  which  the  world  has  any  knowledge,  yet  who 
died  poor — a  bankrupt.  William  Alexander  was  born 
at  Menstrie,  Stirlingshire,  in  1580.  Through  the  influ 
ence  of  the  Argyll  family  he  obtained  a  position  at  Court, 
and  became  tutor  to  Prince  Henry,  eldest  son  of  James 
VI.  He  soon  won  the  good  graces  of  the  sovereign  by 
his  learning,  his  shrewdness,  and  his  poetical  abilities, 
and  when  the  crowns  of  Scotland  and  England  were  unit 
ed  Alexander  followed  the  King  to  London.  That  Alex 
ander  enjoyed  much  popular  favor  and  high  reputation 
during  his  lifetime  as  a  poet  is  undoubted,  although  few 
except  students  of  literature  venture  to  read  his  produc 
tions  now.  They  are  heavy,  discursive,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  of  his  sonnets  and  his  "  Paraenesis 
to  Prince  Henry,"  rather  monotonous.  But  the  evidence 
that  he  was  a  slave  to  the  mannerisms  and  affectations 
of  the  age  cannot  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  he  was  really 
possessed  of  a  rich  share  of  poetic  ability.  With  his  poet 
ical  writings  or  his  merits  as  a  poet,  however,  we  have 
nothing  to  do  in  this  place,  nor  do  we  need  to  discuss 
the  question  as  to  whether  or  not  he  wrote  King  James's 
"  Psalms,"  or  even  the  nature  of  his  statesmanship  as 
"exelnplTfied  in  his  official  relations  with  his  native  coun 
try.  We  have  to  deal  with  him  simply  as  a  colonizer-  - 


46  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

one  of  the  first  to  colonize  America.  His  career  at  Court 
may  be  summed  up  by  mentioning  that  he  was  knighted 
in  1609,  created  Lord  Alexander  of  Tullibody  and  Vis 
count  Stirling  in  1630,  Earl  of  Stirling  and  Viscount 
Canada  in  1633  and  Earl  of  Dovan  in  1639.  A  year  later 
he  died. 

Lord  Stirling  found  that  the  English  were  striving  to 
establish  colonies  on  the  American  seaboard,  and 
thought,  like  the  patriot  which  he  undoubtedly  was,  that 
his  own  countrymen  should  have  a  share  in  the  rich  lands 
across  the  sea.  Early  in  1621  he  sent  a  petition  to  King 
James  for  a  grant  of  territory  in  America  on  which  he 
hoped  to  induce  Scotsmen  to  settle.  "  A  great  number  of 
Scotch  families,"  he  told  his  sovereign,  "  had  lately  emi 
grated  to  Poland,  Sweden,  and  Russia,"  and  he  pointed 
out  that  "  it  would  be  equally  beneficial  to  the  interests 
of  the  kingdom,  and  to  the  individuals  themselves,  if 
they  were  permitted  to  settle  this  valuable  and  fertile 
portion  of  His  Majesty's  dominions." 

The  petition  was  granted  by  the  King — probably  that 
was  satisfactorily  arranged  before  it  had  been  committed 
to  paper — and  indorsed  by  the  Privy  Council.  When 
these  formalities  had  been  gone  through,  Lord  Stirling- 
entered  on  formal  possession  of  what  is  now  mainly  in 
cluded  in  Nova  Scotia,  New  .Brunswick,  Prince  Edward 
Island,  a  goodly  portion  of  the  State  of  Maine  and  of  the 
Province  of  Quebec.  This  territory  was  to  be  known 
as  New  Scotland — Nova  Scotia  the  charter  dignifiedly 
called  it — and  over  it  the  new  owner  and  those  acting  for 
him  were  supreme  even  to  the  establishment  of  churches 
and  of  courts  of  law.  For  some  reason,  not  now  exactly 
known,  Lord  Stirling  at  once  handed  over  a  part  of  his 
new  dominion  to  Sir  Robert  Gordon  of  Lochinvar.  That 
part  is  known  as  Cape  Breton,  but  it  was  then  given  the 
more  national  name  of  New  Galloway. 

Sir  William  Alexander,  to  give  Lord  Stirling  the 
name  by  which  he  is  probably  best  remembered,  sent  out 
his  first  expedition  to  colonize  New  Scotland  in  March, 
1622.  These  pioneers,  with  the  exception  of  an  adventur- 


PIONEERS.  47 

cms  clergyman,  were  of  the  humblest  class  of  agricultural 
laborers,  and  only  a  single  artisan — a  blacksmith — was 
among  them.  The  voyage  was  a  rough  one,  and  after 
sighting  the  coast  of  Cape  Breton  the  emigrants  were 
glad  to  shape  their  course  back  to  Newfoundland,  where 
they  spent  the  Winter.  Next  Spring  Sir  William,  who 
had  been  advised  of  the  failure  of  the  first  expediton, 
sent  out  another  ship  with  colonists  and  provisions.  The 
early  reports  of  the  land  on  which  the  new  colony  was 
to  settle  were  communicated  to  him  by  some  of  his  peo 
ple  soon  after  they  managed  to  get  landed — which  they 
did  in  the  guise  of  an  exploring  party.  These  reports 
were  submitted  by  him  to  the  world,  with  all  the  attract 
iveness  of  a  modern  advertising  expert,  in  his  work  enti 
tled  "  An  Encouragement  to  Colonies."  The  explorers 
described  the  country  they  visited  (mainly  the  coast  of 
Cape  Breton)  as  presenting  "  very  delecate  meadowes, 
having  roses  white  and  red  growing  thereon,  with  a 
kind  of  wild  Lilly,  which  hath  a  daintie  smell."  The 
ground  "  was  without  wood,  and  very  good,  fat  earth, 
having  several  sort  of  berries  growing  thereon,  as  goose 
berries,  strawberries,  hindberries,  raspberries,  and  a  kind 
of  wine  berrie;  as  also  some  sorts  of  grain  as  pease,  some 
eares  of  wheat,  barly,  and  rie  growing  there  wilde.  *  *  * 
They  likewise  found  in  every  river  abundance  of  lob 
sters,  cockles,  and  all  other  shel-fishes,  and  also,  not 
only  in  the  rivers,  but  all  the  coasts  alongst,  numbers 
of  several  sorts  of  wilde-fowle,  as  wild-goose,  black 
Ducke,  woodcock,  crane,  heron,  pidgeon,  and  many 
other  sorts  of  Foule  which  they  knew  not.  They  did  kill 
as  they  sayled  alongst  the  coast,  great  store  of  cod,  with 
severall  other  sorts  of  great  fishes.  The  countrie  is  full 
of  woods,  not  very  thick,  and  the  most  part  Oake;  the 
rest  Firre,  Spruce,  Birch  and  some  Sicamores  and  Ashes 
and  many  other  sorts  of  Wood  which  they  had  not  sene 
before."  All  this  information  so  cunningly  and  attract 
ively  set  forth  by  Sir  William  in  his  book  of  encourage 
ment — which,  by  the  way,  had  a  map  of  the  territory  in 
which  Scottish  names  are  given  to  every  point  and  sec- 


48  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

tion  and  river— failed  to  attract  settlers,  and  the  pro 
jector  found  himself  some  £6,000  out  of  pocket  by  his 
patriotism.  To  reimburse  him,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
add  a  little  to  the  royal  treasury,  the  Order  of  Baronets 
of  Nova  Scotia  was  founded,  on  the  pattern  of  the'Or- 
%*L£LUlster-  Even  this  move  was  not  substantially 
successful,  although  the  terms  were  reasonable  and  the 
lands  accompanying  the  honor  were  "  three  myles  long 
vpon  the  coast  and  ten  mile  vp  into  the  countrie." 

^  We  need  not  follow  the  details  of  Sir  William's  colo 
nizing  scheme  any  further.  They  belong  really  to  the 
history  of  Canada.  Each  failure  seemed  to  be  compen 
sated  for  by  a  fresh  grant  of  territory,  and  if  we  may 
believe  a  map  issued  long  after  by  one  of  the  many  claim 
ants  for  his  hereditary  titles  and  "  land  rights  "  the  Alex 
ander  family  held  "  by  right  of  charters,"  the  sort  of 
documents  which  the  Duke  of  Argyll  believes  to  be  the 
most  sacred  on  earth,  not  only  about  the  whole  of  Can 
ada,  but  the  States  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
New  York,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Maryland,  and  an  undefined  terri 
tory  two  or  three  times  as  large  as  all  that  has  been 
named  put  together. 

Sir  William  never  saw  his  possessions  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  but  his  eldest  son,  known  as  Lord  Alex 
ander,  did,  and  "  efter  his  returne  from  his  sea  voyage, 
gave  to  the  puir  of  Stirling  fifty-aught  pundes  money  "- 
the  first  of  a  long  series  of  gifts  to  Scotland  from  Scots 
who  have  enjoyed  a  blink  of  fortune's  sun  on  the  west 
ern  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

Among  the  first  actual  settlers  from  Scotland  of  whom 
we  have  record  in  what  is  now  the  United  States,  were 
the  passengers  on  the  ship  "  John  and  Sara,"  which  ar 
rived  in  Boston  Harbor  in  1652.  That  there  were  Scots 
men  settled  and  doing  business — perhaps  making  sillar 
and  meditating  speeches  about  St.  Andrew — before  that 
time  there  is  no  doubt.  Of  the  fact,  indeed,  there  is  plenty 
of  evidence,  but  these  arrivals  came  in  a  body  and  un 
der  such  sad  circumstances  that  the  early  Scottish-Amer- 


PIONEERS.  49 

ican  history  of  the  time,  especially  in  New  England, 
crystallizes  about  them.  They  were  prisoners  of  war, 
captured  by  Cromwell's  forces  after  the  battle  of  Dun- 
bar,  and  sentenced  to  be  transported  to  the  American 
plantations  and  sold  as  slaves.  This  was  done.  Some 
appear  to  have  been  traded  off  in  New  England  for  a 
term  of  years ;  others  were  sent  to  the  West  Indies.  The 
entire  ''  cargo  "  was  soon  disposed  of  in  one  way  or  an 
other,  and  for  various  terms  of  servitude,  and  there  were 
other  consignments  of  unfortunates  about  the  same  pe 
riod  and  for  many  years  after  sent  to  the  New  World. 
The  John  and  Sara  prisoners,  however,  stand  out  in  bold 
and  creditable  relief  from  the  rest,  as  it  was  due  to  their 
plight  that  the  ^Scots'  Charitable  Society  of  Boston  was 
established  in  1657.  The  same  class  of  prisoners,  staunch, 
stern  Presbvterians,  were  the  founders  of  colonies  on  the 
Elizabeth  River,  Virginia,  and  in  Maryland,  and  it  was 
invariably  the  case  that  one  of  the  first  structures  in  each 
settlement  was  a  church,  although  the  tabernacle  was 
only  built  of  logs. 

The  Scottish  population  received  many  of  its  earlier 
recruits  from  soldiers  belonging  to  the  Highland  regi 
ments  who  completed  their  terms  of  service  while  in  this 
country  or  were  disbanded  after  the  close  of  the  war 
for  possession  with  the  French.  Large  colonies  of  these 
settled  in  the  Carolinas  and  Virginia,  and  through  them 
many  immigrants  were  induced  to  join  them  from  the 
home  country.  Canada  enjoyed  its  full  share  of  these 
settlers,  and  after  the  Revolution  it  had  a  monopoly  of 
them,  while  they  in  turn  monopolized  a  good  deal  them 
selves.  Indeed,  it  is  said  that  up  to  the  year  1810  there 
was  not  a  merchant  in  the  French  City  of  Quebec  who 
did  not  hail  from  the  "  Land  o'  Cakes." 

"  After  the  termination  of  the  Seven  Years'  War," 
writes  Bancroft  in  his  great  History  of  the  United  States, 
"  very  few  of  the  Highland  regiments  returned  home, 
soldiers  and  officers  choosing  rather  to  accept  grants  of 
land  in  America  for  settlement.  Many,  also,  of  the  in 
habitants  of  Northwestern  Scotland,  especially  of  the 


50  THE     SCOT    IN     AMERICA. 

clans  of  Macdonald  and  Macleod,  listened  to  overtures 
from  those  who  had  obtained  concessions  of  vast  domains 
and  migrated  to  Middle  Carolina,  tearing  themselves, 
with  bitterest  grief,  from  kindred  whose  sorrow  at  part 
ing  knew  no  consolation.  Most  who  went  first  reported 
favorably  of  the  clear,  sunny  clime  where  every  man 
might  have  land  of  his  own ;  and  from  the  isles  of  Raasay 
and  Skye  whole  neighborhoods  formed  parties  for  re 
moval,  sweetening  their  exile  by  carrying  with  them 
their  costume  and  opinions,  their  Celtic  language  and 
songs."  Marlborough,  Bladensburg,  Maryland,  the  Cape 
Fear,  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  York  and  Rappa- 
hannock  Rivers,  Virginia,  Delaware,  Albemarle  Sound 
were  among  the  places  at  which,  or  near  to  which, 
Scotch  colonies  settled  whose  history  is  really  an  inter 
esting  part  of  that  of  the  early  Commonwealths. 

In  the  State  of  New  York  there  were  many  such  colo 
nies  and  one  in  particular  deserves  notice  for  the  pub 
licity  it  received  at  the  time,  and  the  scandal  it  created 
amo'ng  the  local  politicians.  In  1738  Captain  Laughlin 
Campbell,  an  Argyllshire  man,  sold  off  his  Scotch  es 
tate  and  expended  the  proceeds  in  conveying  across  the 
Atlantic  eighty-three  families  from  his  own  countryside. 
He  had  obtained  a  grant  of  47,450  acres  in  what  is  now 
Washington  County,  on  the  borders  of  Lake  George, 
and  proposed  to  settle  down  there  as  a  feudal  baron, 
with  his  retainers  around  him.  Many  of  the  emigrants 
were  indebted  to  him  for  the  entire  cost  of  their  passage; 
all  were  his  debtors  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  and  the 
people,  numbering  some  500,  were  to  recoup  him  by 
their  labor  after  settling  in  America.  His  means  were 
practically  exhausted  after  bringing  that  host  across  the 
sea,  and  his  indignation  and  sorrow  may  be  imagined 
when,  after  landing,  some  of  them  refused  to  settle  on 
his  lands.  They  would  pay  what  they  owed  him  as  soon 
as  they  earned  any  surplus,  but  they  intended  to  earn 
that  surplus  in  their  own  way  and  asserted  that  they 
had  no  idea,  when  they  left  Scotland,  of  simply  exchang 
ing  a  system  of  vassalage  from  Scotch  landlords  to  one 


PIONEERS.  51 

in  America.  It  was  a  terrible,  an  unexpected  muddle. 
The  Colonial  Assembly  interfered.  The  Governor, 
George  Clarke,  asked  that  some  provision  be  made  for 
those  who  were  penniless,  which  seems  to  have  been  the 
whole  lot,  and  a  motion  was  made  to  donate  £7  to  each 
family  to  start  them  in  their  new  career.  The  contracts 
Campbell  had  made  with  the  Colonial  authorities  and 
with  his  people  were  perfectly  legal,  and  after  considera 
ble  bickering  and  argument  all  around,  his  party  or  most 
of  them  reached  Washington  County  and  settled  down 
on  the  tract  which  had  been  awarded  to  their  leader. 
There  they  experienced  the  hardships  which  are  the 
usual  accompaniments  of  pioneer  life.  But  the  majority 
appear  to  have  overcome  these  hardships  and  to  have 
succeeded  fairly  well  in  bettering  their  condition.  "  By 
this  immigration,"  writes  Mr.  Ellis  H.  Roberts  in  his  \ 
"  History  of  New  York,"  "  the  province  secured  a  much-  T~ 
needed  addition  to  its  population,  and  these  Highland 
ers  must  have  sent  messages  home  not  altogether  un 
favorable,  for  they  were  the  pioneers  of  a  multitude 
whose  coming  in  successive  years  was  to  add  strength 
and  thrift  and  intelligence  beyond  the  ratio  of  their  num 
bers  to  the  communities  in  which  they  set  up  their 
homes."  However  the  others  may  have  fared,  Captain 
Campbell  was  ruined  by  the  scheme,  and  we  cannot  say 
that  we  feel  even  a  sentiment  of  regret  over  his  mis 
fortune,  for  his  policy  was  dictated  by  selfishness  from 
first  to  last.  The  tract  on  which  these  Highlanders  set 
tled  was  named  by  them  Argyle,  and  when  it  was  incor 
porated  in  1764  with  Duncan  Reid,  Neil  Shaw,  Alexan 
der  McNachten,  and  Neil  Gillespie  as  trustees,  they  had 
begun  to  have  high  notions  as  to  its  future.  They  drew 
up  a  plan  on  paper — thus  showing  that  they  had  become 
thoroughly  Americanized — of  the  town,  and  its  principal 
avenue  was  there  seen  to  be  a  broad  thoroughfare  called 
The  Street  and  extending  in  a  fairly  straight  line  for 
seven  miles.  They  divided  their  property  into  city  lots 
and  farm  lots,  and,  apparently,  hoped  to  get  rich  quickly ; 
but  their  hopes  did  not  materialize,  and  Argyle,  North 


52  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Argyle,  and  South  Argyle,  populated  by  Livingstones, 
Campbells,  Gillies,  McRaes,  and  others  of  such  patro 
nymics  still  retain  to  this  day  much  of  their  original  and 
delightful  rural  simplicity. 

Quite  a  Scotch  colony  settled  at  one  time,  too,  in  what 
is  now  Putnam  County,  N.  Y.  The  town  of  Patterson 
was  mostly  settled  by  Scotch  and  New  England  Presby 
terians  before  1750.' The  town  got  its  name  from  Mat 
thew  Patterson,  a  Scotch  mason  who  settled  in  New 
York  several  years  before  the  Revolution.  As  a  Captain 
of  volunteers 'he  served  under  General  Abercrombie  in 
the  northern  campaign  against  the  French  troops.  At  the 
Revolution  he  took  the  side  of  the  Colonial  Whigs,  and 
was  much  respected  for  his  honesty  and  superior  intel 
ligence.  He  was  nine  times  elected  a  member  of  the 
New  York  Legislature,  and  was  nine  years  a  County 
Judge.  He  purchased  160  acres  of  land,  which  had  be 
longed  to  the  Beverley  Robinson  forfeited  estate,  and 
on  this  he  erected  a  mansion  which  was  long  the  most 
prominent  in  Patterson. 

The  names  of  the  Scottish  families  which  settled  in 
the  place  were  McLean,  Grant,  Fraser,  and  Fleming;  and 
there  was  a  Capt.  Kidd— no  relation,  however,  of  the 
pirate  of  the  same  name  we  have  already  spoken  about. 
Several  fugitives  from  the  massacre  of  Wyoming,  made 
classic  by  the  genius  of  Campbell,  found  refuge  and 
homes  in  Dutchess  County ;  and  among  the  number  was 
a  Scotch  family  of  the  name  of  Stark. 

We  would  like  to  refer  to  other  colonies,  notably  that 
of  Glengarry  in  Ontario,  but  that,  and  such  settlements 
as  those  at  Pictou,  Antigonish,  and  others  all  over  the 
Lower  Provinces  would  require  a  volume  to  themselves. 
As  this  work  is  indicative  rather  than  exhaustive  we 
have  said  enough  for  the  present  to  show  the  existence 
of  such  colonies,  while  several  others  will  be  mentioned 
in  connection  with  various  matters  during  the  course  of 
our  present  study.  We  will  therefore  devote  the  re 
mainder  of  this  chapter  mainly  to  recalling  the  expe 
riences  and  adventures  of  a  few  individuals  who  may 


PIONEERS.  53 

be   regarded   as   representative    of   the    grand    army    of 
pioneers. 

In  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  no  man 
was  better  known  throughout  Western  New  York  for 
his  success  and  energy  as  a  promoter  and  pioneer  than 
Charles  Williamson.  He  was  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1757 
and  was  the  scion  of  a  respectable  Dumfries-shire  family. 
In  early  life  he  held  a  commission  in  the  British  Army, 
and  it  was  in  the  course  of  his  military  duty  that  he  first 
crossed  the  ocean  to  visit  America.  He  landed  at  Boston, 
however,  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  the  vessel  on  which  he 
was  a  passenger  having  been  captured  by  a  French  pri 
vateer.  While  on  parole  in  Boston  he  fell  in  love  with 
the  young  daughter  of  the  family  with  whom  he  boarded 
— or  she  fell  in  love  with  him — and  when  he  obtained  his 
release  the  two  were  married  under  what  some  people 
might  think  romantic  circumstances.  The  pair  left  the 
country  in  1781,  and  for  several  years  resided  at  Balgray, 
Scotland.  In  1790  he  returned  to  this  country  as  the  prin 
cipal  agent  of  what  was  known  as  the  Pulteney  estate, 
from  the  name  of  Sir  William  Pulteney,  the  leading  spirit 
of  a  British  syndicate  which  had  purchased  a  tract  of 
1,200,000  acres  of  land  in  Western  New- York  for  colon 
ization  purposes  from  Robert  Morris,  the  representative 
of  the  United  States  Government.  This  prgperty  includ 
ed  mainly  what  is  now  Steuben  County,  and,  although 
Sir  William  Pulteney  was  nominally  the  head  of  the  syn 
dicate  and  another  Englishman,  John  Hornby,  was  a 
leading  shareholder,  its  moving  spirit  was  Patrick  Col- 
quhoun.  This  notable  Scot  was  born  in  Dumbarton  in 
1745  and  was  a  cadet  of  the  family  of  Luss.  When  a 
youth  he  was  sent  to  Virginia,  and  there  he  engaged  in 
business  and  was  very  successful  during  the  few  years 
of  his  sojourn.  In  1766  he  left  the  country  and  settled 
in  Glasgow,  where  he  soon  became  one  of  the  most  noted 
local  figures.  He  was  three  times  elected  its  Lord  Pro 
vost,  organized  the  city's  Chamber  of  Commerce  and 
obtained  a  royal  charter  for  it,  and  was  generally  regard 
ed  as  the  most  influential  of  its  citizens.  In  1789  he  re- 


54  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

moved  to  London,  became  one  of  the  Police  Magistrates 
of  the  British  metropolis,  and  distinguished  himself  by 
his  untiring  energy  in  that  capacity,  by  his  plans  for  the 
protection  of  the  property  in  the  city  and  on  the  Thames, 
as  well  as  by  his  writings  on  police,  indigence,  and  other 
practical  social  questions.  He  died  in  1820,  and  like  so 
many  other  kindly  Scots  at  all  times,  bequeathed  a  part 
of  his  accumulated  savings  to  help  the  poor  of  his  native 
parish,  that  of  Dumbarton.  Colquhoun  retained  during 
his  long  career  a  deep  interest  in  America  and  was  one 
of  the  most  enthusiastic  believers  in  its  future  greatness 
and  importance.  His  residence  in  Virginia  and  the 
share  he  took  in  developing  the  Pulteney  syndicate  are 
sufficient  to  account  for  and  illustrate  this,  but  there  were 
probably  other  ways  now  forgotten  in  which  his  actions 
commended  him  to  the  good  will  of  many  in  America. 
How  otherwise  can  we  account  for  the  presence  of  a 
marble  memorial  tablet,  bearing  a  long,  biographical  and 
highly  flattering  inscription,  in  one  of  the  churches  at 
Canandaigua?  It  was  erected  there  soon  after  Colqu- 
houn's  death,  in  1820,  and  was  removed,  for  some  un 
known  reason,  and  by  ignoble  hands,  about  1880. 

It  was  undoubtedly  through  Colquhoun  that  William 
son  received  the  appointment  to  take  charge  of  the  lands 
of  the  Pulteney  syndicate.  He  arrived  at  Norfolk,  Va., 
in  170,1  and  spent  the  Winter  of  that  year  mainly  in 
Pennsylvania.  But  while  resting  he  was  conceiving 
schemes  for  the  future  management  of  the  property  in 
trusted  to  him,  and  on  a  flying  visit  which  he  paid  to  the 
land  in  midwinter  he  located  the  site  of  a  future  town 
which  was  to  bear  his  name — and  still  bears  it,  although 
its  intended  greatness  has  not  yet  materialized.  He  also 
became  a  citizen  and  received  a  deed  of  the  lands  of  the 
syndicate,  as  the  law  did  not  permit  aliens  to  own  real 
estate  in  New  York.  Next  Spring,  1792,  he  entered  on 
his  duties  in  earnest  and  soon  had  "  things  hummirr,"  as 
the  Yankees  say.  The  property  was  quickly  surveyed 
and  improvements  begun.  He  opened  roads,  built 
bridges,  laid  out  farms,  erected  schoolhouses  and  hotels, 


PIONEERS.  55 

and,  more  important  than  all,  had  the  tract  widely  talked 
about  and  induced  intending  settlers  to  visit  the  territory 
and  buy  or  lease  its  lands.  His  greatest  energy  was  de 
voted,  however,  to  the  town  of  Bath,  named  after  Lady 
Bath,  the  only  daughter  of  Sir  William  Pulteney,  which 
he  founded  in  1793.  It  was  to  be  a  metropolitan  city,  and 
he  hustled  to  make  it  great.  It  had  a  newspaper,  a  the 
atre,  a  racecourse,  and,  for  a  time,  was  the  centre  of  a 
great  amount  of  business,  of  real  estate  speculation,  and 
of  schemes  of  all  sorts.  Naturally  all  that  attracted  crowds 
to  the  place,  and  its  population  increased ;  but  the  throng 
was  mainly  composed  of  speculators,  gamblers,  and  ad 
venturers  of  various  sorts — hardly  the  sort  of  people  to 
give  a  settlement  any  permanence.  But  while  the  boom 
lasted,  Bath  enjoyed  the  luxury  of  indulging  in  hopes  of 
a  glorious  future,  and  every  month  seemed  to  add  to 
Capt.  Williamson's  importance,  while  the  members  of 
the  syndicate  in  London,  when  they  looked  at  the  neat 
maps  of  the  estate  and  the  extensive  plan  of  the  City 
of  Bath,  had  visions  of  unexampled  wealth  lying  in  their 
coffers.  Williamson  was  elected  to  the  State  Legislature, 
was  appointed  a  Judge,  had  Steuben  County  created, 
and  was  its  representative  in  the  Assembly,  and  became 
Colonel  of  the  local  militia.  He  had  a  large  establish 
ment,  kept  open  house,  and  entertained  lavishly.  Among 
his  other  guests  were  the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucault  and 
his  suite,  and  that  nobleman  afterward  wrote  an  inter 
esting  account  of  his  sojourn  in  the  collection  of  small 
houses  which  formed  the  Williamson  home,  and  which 
Lad  been  built  from  time  to  time,  just  as  increased  ac 
commodation  was  required.  Afterward  Williamson 
erected  for  himself  a  stately  mansion,  which  was  long 
the  most  imposing  private  residence  in  the  county.  Will 
iamson's  schemes  and  plans  would  certainly  have  had 
wonderful  results  had  he  been  allowed  to  carry  them  on 
in  his  own  way.  But  his  doings  were  on  an  extravagant 
and  costly  scale,  and  as  no  dividends  were  being  remitted 
to  London,  the  syndicate  became  restive.  All  retired, 
selling  their  interests  to  Pulteney,  and  that  capitalist  in 


56  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

1800  revoked  Williamson's  appointment.  The  latter  re 
mained  in  Steuben  for  a  few  years,  attending  to  his  own 
affairs  and  seeing  the  work  he  had  inaugurated  and  so 
hopefully  developed  gradually  falling  into  a  state  of 
decay.  Domestic  troubles  helped  to  make  his  position  ad 
ditionally  embarrassing  and  his  prospects  more  gloomy, 
and  in  1806  he  went  back  to  Scotland.  Two  years  later 
he  got  an  appointment  from  the  British  Government  in 
connection  with  the  Island  of  Jamaica,  and  while  on  the 
journey  there  died  of  yellow  fever  at  New  Orleans,  in 
September,  1808. 

Bath  soon  fell  into  decay  and  never  regained  its  promi 
nence,  nor  did  much  success  attend  the  town  of  Will 
iamson,  or  that  of  Cameron,  which  latter  was  founded 
not  far  away  and  about  the  same  time  by  Dugald  Came 
ron,  who  accompanied  Williamson  from  Scotland  to  help 
him  in  the  \vork  of  the  agency.  But  if  the  Scotch  people 
did  not  found  towns  very  successfully,  they  gave  to  the 
county  a  race  of  settlers  who,  to  the  present  day,  are 
proud  of  their  ancestry  and  have  developed  the  agricul 
tural  resources  of  Steuben  to  their  fullest  extent. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  from  the  failure  of  Williamson's 
schemes  that  either  his  judgment  or  methods  were  at 
fault.  The  trouble  lay  simply  in  the  impatience  of  the 
people  at  headquarters,  who  expected  an  immediate 
profit  upon  their  capital.  Nor  are  Scotsmen  to  be  re 
garded  as  failures  in  respect  to  town  founding  in  Amer 
ica.  Half  of  the  towns  in  Canada,  the  centres  which  are 
the  marts  of  the  country,  were  founded  by  Scotsmen, 
and,  indeed,  to  the  present  day  are  controlled  by  people 
whose  boast  is  that  they  are  either  native-born  Scotch 
or  of  Scotch  descent.  The  City  of  Chicago  was  really 
founded  by  John  jvinzie,  an  Indian  trader  and  agent, 
the  son  of  a  Scotsman,  John  McKenzie,  although  the 
name  got  twisted  round  a  littTeToTsuit  the  people  who 
could  not  catch  hold  of  the  grand  old  Scotch  name,  just 
as  a  well-known  New  York  clergyman  whose  name 
was  Menzies  when  he  landed,  and  pronounced  it  like 
a  true  Scot  "  Meengies,"  found  himself  so  often  ad- 


PIONEERS.  57 

dressed  as  Mingins  that  he  was  forced  to  adopt  that 
very  peculiar  modification  of  an  old  Celtic  name.  Kinzie 
was  born  at  Quebec  in  1763,  and  died  in  the  city  he  had 
founded  in  1828,  probably  without  much  idea  of  its  ulti 
mate  greatness.  Another  example  of  a  prosperous 
American  town  founded  by  a  Scot  is  Paterson,  N.  J., 
which  owed  its  origin  to  the  public  spirit  of  Alexander 
Hamilton,  Washington's  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and 
until  the  present  day  its  Scottish  residents  have  been  re 
garded  as  among  its  most  representative  citizens. 

An  instance  of  a  pioneer  in  humble  life,  although  a 
pioneer  very  much  against  his  will,  is  that  of  Peter  Will 
iamson,  a  sort  of  universal  genius,  who  acquired  more 
than  local  fame  by  being  the  first  to  introduce  the  penny 
post  into  Edinburgh  and  more  than  fleeting  reputation 
by  having  his  portrait  done  by  Kay,  the  Edinburgh  en 
graver  and  miniature  painter,  and  included  in  the  pub 
lished  collection  of  that  noted  caricaturist's  works.  From 
that  wonderful  storehouse  of  quaint  information  we  learn 
that  Williamson,  who  was  a  native  of  the  Parish  of 
Aboyne,  was  kidnapped  in  Aberdeen  when  only  eight 
years  of  age.  The  ship  a  month  later  started  on  a 
voyage  to  America,  when  Williamson  and  some  other 
young  unfortunates  were  permitted  to  go  on  deck  and 
assigned  to  various  duties.  The  ship  was  wrecked  off 
Cape  May,  but  no  lives  were  lost,  and  the  crew  camped 
in  the  woods  for  three  weeks,  when  the  kidnapped  lads 
were  taken  to  Philadelphia  and  sold  for  £16  a  head. 
Williamson's  master  appears  to  have  been  a  rather  kind- 
hearted  sort  of  fellow,  and  he  made  his  bondsman  as 
comfortable  as  possible.  He  died,  however,  when  Will 
iamson  was  seventeen  years  of  age,  leaving  him  £120  in 
cash,  a  horse,  and  other  valuables.  For  seven  years  more 
Williamson  worked  wherever  he  could  find  employment, 
being  his  own  master,  and  managed  to  save  a  little 
money.  Then  he  determined  to  settle  down  for  life,  and, 
marrying  the  daughter  of  a  planter,  received  with  her  a 
gift  of  a  farm  of  some  200  acres  on  the  Pennsylvania 
frontier.  His  troubles  then  began. 


58  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

It  was  not  long  after  he  had  gotten  fairly  settled  down 
that  one  evening,  his  wife  being  absent,  making  a  call, 
he  heard  the  terrible  Indian  war  whoop,  and  soon  his 
house  was  surrounded  and  he  was  forced  to  surrender 
to  the  savages.  After  they  had  destroyed  his  buildings 
and  stock  they  carried  him  off  with  them  on  their  march 
of  destruction.  They  committed  many  fiendish  cruelties 
as  they  proceeded,  burning  and  destroying  all  they  could 
not  take  away,  murdering  without  scruple,  and  carrying 
into  captivity  a  few  unfortunates  who  took  their  fancy, 
principally  as  fit  subjects  for  torture.  Williamson's  treat 
ment  was  something  terrible  even  to  read  about,  and  he 
appears  to  have  been  the  most  gently  handled  of  the 
lot.  They  tied  him  so  tightly  to  trees  that  the  blood 
oozed  from  his  finger  nails;  they  applied  burning  faggots 
to  various  parts  of  his  body,  threw  tomahawks  at  him, 
beat  him  unmercifully,  forced  him  to  carry  the  heaviest 
possible  loads,  starved  him,  and,  to  put  it  mildly,  made 
him  emphatically  decide  that  life  really  was  not  worth 
living.  After  several  months  of  this  sort  of  pioneering, 
Williamson  managed  to  make  his  escape,  and  at  the  close 
of  a  series  of  startling  adventures  reached  his  father-in- 
law's  house,  only  to  find  that  his  wife  had  died  shortly 
after  his  capture.  For  three  years  Williamson  served 
with  the  military  forces  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Penn 
sylvania,  repaying  the  Indians  with  interest  for  what  he 
had  suffered,  and  rose  to  the  rank  of  Lieutenant  in  the 
army  by  his  bravery  and  success  as  an  Indian  fighter. 
This  pleasant  occupation  was  stopped  at  length  by  his 
capture  by  the  French.  On  being  released  he  was  taken 
to  Plymouth,  England,  and,  being  there  found  unfit  for 
further  service,  was  graciously  discharged  from  His 
Majesty's  service  with  six  shillings  in  his  pocket.  His 
after  career  in  his  native  land  was  full  of  startling  inci 
dents,  but  they  do  not  concern  us  here.  He  died  at  Edin 
burgh,  in  poor  circumstances,  in  1799. 

Some  people  might  deny  that  Williamson  was  exactly 
a  pioneer,  as  he  did  not  betake  himself  to  open  up  new 
fields,  or  of  his  own  volition  went  into  sections  of  the 


PIONEERS.  59 

country  which,  prior  to  his  time,  had  not  been  under  the 
observation  or  the  sway  of  white  men.  But  he  was  there, 
nevertheless,  and  his  experiences  and  observations  were 
of  value  in  the  struggle  for  possession  then  going  on.  If 
we  turn,  however,  to  the  careers  of  such  men  as  Donald 
Mackenzie  or  Robert  Stuart,  we  will  meet  with  pioneers 
whose  claim  to  the  title  not  even  the  most  fastidious  in 
the  choice  of  words  and  terms  will  affect  to  deny.  A 
great  deal  of  the  adventures  of  these  two  men  and  of 
several  other  Scotch  pioneers,  is  to  be  found  in  Washing 
ton  Irving's  delightful  work.  "  Astoria,"  which  possibly 
presents  a  more  graphic  and  truthful  description  of  old 
American  frontier  life  than  any  other  volume.  Donald 
Mackenzie  was  born  in  Scotland  in  1783,  spent  his  early 
TnanFTood  in  the  service  of  the  Northwest  Company,  and 
became  one  of  the  partners  in  Astor's  American  Fur 
Company,  mainly  because  promotion  in  the  other  con 
cern  was  slow,  and  under  new  conditions  and  auspices 
he  saw  a  chance  of  bettering  his  prospects.  Like  most 
of  the  other  Scots  who  joined  Mr.  Astor  as  partners  in 
the  new  company,  he  apprehended  that  he  might  be 
called  upon  to  take  part  in  opposition  to  his  own  coun 
trymen,  but  the  fact  that  the  British  Minister  to  the 
United  States,  to  whom  the  whole  matter  had  been  pri 
vately  submitted  by  two  of  the  Scotch  partners,  saw  no 
reason  why  men  owning  allegiance  to  the  British  flag 
should  not  take  part  in  an  American  expedition  to  trade 
in  a  territory  which  was  at  that  time  no-man's  land, 
quieted  his  scruples,  as  it  did  that  of  the  others.  Irving 
tells  us  that  prior  to  joining  the  Astor  Company,  Mac 
kenzie  "  had  been  ten  years  in  the  interior  in  the  service 
of  the  Northwest  Company  and  valued  himself  on  his 
knowledge  of  '  woodcraft '  and  the  strategy  of  Indian 
trade  and  Indian  warfare.  He  had  a  frame  seasoned  to 
toils  and  hardships,  a  spirit  not  to  be  intimidated,  and 
was  reputed  to  be  a  remarkable  shot,  which  of  itself  was 
sufficient  to  give  him  renown  on  the  frontier."  His  ad 
ventures  are  fully  related  in  the  pages  of  '"  Astoria,"  and, 
indeed,  if  the  doings  of  Stuart,  Mackenzie,  Mackay,  and 


60  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

other  Scots  were  taken  out  of  that  book,  its  subject  mat 
ter  would  occupy  only  a  few  pages.  Mackenzie  seems  to 
have  been  intended  by  nature  for  a  pioneer.  His  soul  rev 
elled  in  the  trackless  woods;  he  knew  no  sense  of  fatigue 
or  fear,  was  perfectly  happy  with  each  day's  work,  had 
no  care  for  the  future,  took  a  delight  in  getting  the  best 
of  the  Indians  in  any  transaction,  warlike  or  peaceful; 
was  always  ready  for  any  expedition,  no  matter  how 
hopeless  it  seemed,  and  had  that  degree  of  chivalrous 
daring  which  was  most  likely  to  inspire  admiration  in 
the  hearts  of  friends  and  foes  alike.  An  instance  is  given 
so  graphically  in  Irving's  narrative  that  we  cannot  for 
bear  quoting  it  here,  although  that  volume  is  happily 
still  widely  read.  A  rifle  belonging  to  one  of  Macken 
zie's  associates  was  held  as  a  trophy  in  an  Indian  village 
after  its  owner  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  redskins. 
Being  near  that  same  village  with  a  small  party,  Mac 
kenzie  determined  to  make  an  attempt  to  recover  the 
rifle,  and  along  with  two  of  his  men,  who  volunteered 
to  accompany  him,  started  on  his  dangerous  mission. 
"  The  trio,"  wrote  Irving,  "  soon  reached  the  opposite 
side  of  the  river.  On  landing,  they  freshly  primed  their 
rifles  and  pistols.  A  path,  winding  for  about  a  hundred 
yards  among  rocks  and  crags,  led  to  the  village.  No 
notice  seemed  to  be  taken  of  their  approach.  Not  a  soli 
tary  being — man,  woman,  or  child — greeted  them.  The 
very  dogs,  those  noisy  pests  of  an  Indian  town,  kept 
silence.  On  entering  the  village,  a  boy  made  his  appear 
ance  and  pointed  to  a  house  of  larger  dimensions  than 
the  rest.  They  had  to  stoop  to  enter  it.  As  soon  as  they 
had  passed  the  threshold,  the  narrow  passage  behind 
them  was  rilled  up  by  a  sudden  rush  of  Indians,  who  had 
before  kept  out  of  sight.  Mackenzie  and  his  compan 
ions  found  themselves  in  a  rude  chamber  of  about 
twenty-five  feet  in  length  and  twenty  in  width.  A  bright 
fire  was  blazing  at  one  end,  near  which  sat  the  chief, 
about  sixty  years  old.  A  large  number  of  Indians, 
wrapped  in  buffalo  robes,  were  squatted  in  rows,  three 
deep,  forming  a  semi-circle  round  three  sides  of  the 


PIONEERS.  61 

room.  A  single  glance  sufficed  to  show  them  the  grim 
and  dangerous  assembly  into  which  they  had  intruded, 
and  that  all  retreat  was  cut  off  by  the  mass  which  blocked 
up  the  entrance.  The  chief  pointed  to  the  vacant  side  of 
the  room,  opposite  the  door,  and  motioned  for  them  to 
take  their  seats.  They  complied.  A  dead  pause  ensued. 
The  grim  warriors  around  sat  like  statues,  each  muffled 
in  his  robe,  with  his  fierce  eyes  bent  on  the  intruders. 
The  latter  felt  they  were  in  a  perilous  predicament. 
'  Keep  your  eyes  on  the  chief  while  I  am  addressing 
him/  said  Mackenzie  to  his  companions.  '  Should  he 
give  any  sign  to  his  band,  shoot  him  and  make  for  the 
door.'  Mackenzie  advanced  and  offered  the  pipe  of  peace 
to  the  chief,  but  it  was  refused.  He  then  made  a  regular 
speech,  explaining  the  object  of  their  visit  and  proposing 
to  give  in  exchange  for  the  rifle  two  blankets,  an  axe, 
some  beads,  and  tobacco.  When  he  had  done  the  chief 
arose,  began  to  address  him  in  a  low  tone,  but  soon  be 
came  loud  and  violent,  and  ended  by  working  himself 
up  into  a  furious  passion.  He  upbraided  the  white  men 
for  their  sordid  conduct  in  passing  and  repassing 
through  their  neighborhood  without  giving  them  a  blan 
ket  or  any  other  article  of  goods  merely  because  they 
had  no  furs  to  barter  in  exchange,  and  he  alluded  with 
menaces  of  vengeance  to  the  death  of  the  Indian  killed 
by  the  whites  in  the  skirmish  at  the  falls.  Matters  were 
now  verging  to  a  crisis.  It  was  evident  the  surrounding 
savages  were  only  waiting  a  signal  from  the  chief  to  rush 
on  their  prey.  Mackenzie  and  his  companions  had  grad 
ually  risen  to  their  feet  during  the  speech,  and  had 
brought  their  rifles  to  a  horizontal  position,  the  barrels 
resting  in  their  left  hands;  the  muzzle  of  Mackenzie's 
piece  was  within  three  feet  of  the  speaker's  heart.  They 
cocked  their  rifles ;  the  click  of  the  locks  for  a  moment . 
suffused  the  dark  cheek  of  the  savage,  and  there  was  a 
pause.  They  coolly  but  promptly  advanced  to  the  door; 
the  Indians  fell  back  in  awe  and  suffered  them  to  pass. 
The  sun  was  just  setting  as  they  emerged  from  the 
dangerous  den.  They  took  the  precaution  to  keep  along 


62  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

the  tops  of  the  rocks  as  much  as  possible  on  their  way 
back  to  the  canoe  and  reached  the  camp  in  safety,  con 
gratulating  themselves  on  their  escape  and  feeling  no 
desire  to  make  a  second  visit  to  the  grim  warriors  of 
Wish-ram." 

After  a  life  of  such  adventure  it  is  wonderful  to  record 
that  Mackenzie  spent  a  short  season  of  repose  before  he 
died  at  Maysville,  N.  Y.,  in  1851. 

Stuart  was  a  man  much  superior,  intellectually,  to 
Mackenzie,  although  he  had  all  his  qualities  of  hardi 
hood,  daring,  and  an  equal  experience  of  frontier  life. 
He  was  born  at  Callander  in  1785,  a  scion  of  one  of  the 
recognized  septs  of  the  Stuarts,  and  the  grandson  of  Alex 
ander  Stuart,  Rob  Roy's  most  bitter  enemy.  He  crossed 
the  Atlantic  in  1806.  Irving  describes  him  as  "  an  easy 
soul  and  of  a  social  disposition.  He  had  seen  life  in 
Canada  and  on  the  coast  of  Labrador;  had  been  a  fur 
trader  in  the  former  and  a  fisherman  on  the  latter,  and 
in  the  course  of  his  experiences  had  made  various  ex 
peditions  with  voyageurs.  He  was  accustomed,  there 
fore,  to  the  familiarity  which  prevails  between  that  class 
and  their  superiors,  and  the  gossipings  which  take  place 
among  them  when  seated  round  a  fire  at  their  encamp 
ments.  Stuart  was  never  so  happy  as  when  he  could 
seat  himself  on  the  deck  wdth  a  number  of  these  men 
around  him  in  camping  style,  smoke  together,  passing 
the  pipe  from  mouth  to  mouth,  after  the  manner  of  the 
Indians;  sing  old  Canadian  boat  songs,  and  tell  stories 
about  their  hardships  and  adventures,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  rivalled  Sinbad  in  his  long  tales  of  the  sea, 
about  his  fishing  exploits  off  Labrador."  This  personage 
occupies  a  very  prominent  position  throughout  the  vol 
ume  on  Astoria,  and,  indeed,  he  was  one  of  Mr.  Astor's 
most  trusted  partners  in  that  expedition.  Particular  care 
is  devoted  to  relate  his  memorable  journey  across  the  con 
tinent — he  was  the  third  to  attempt  such  a  task — which 
lasted  from  June,  1812,  until  the  middle  of  the  following 
year.  For  the  details  of  this  journey  the  inquirer  cannot 
do  better  than  study  the  pages  of  Irving's  book,  and 


PIONEERS.  63 

there  he  will  find  much  additional  information  about 
Scottish  and  other  pioneers  connected  with  early  Ore 
gon. 

In  1819,  Stuart  left  Oregon  and  settled  at  Mackinaw, 
Mich.,  where  he  continued  to  act  as  a  fur  trader  and  was 
appointed  by  the  Federal  Government  Commissioner  for 
the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Northwest.  In  1834  he  settled  in 
Detroit,  and  among  other  important  offices,  served  as 
Treasurer  of  Michigan.  His  honesty  was  of  the  most 
scrupulous  order,  and  when  he  died,  at  Chicago,  in  1848, 
his  loss  was  regretted  by  the  Indian  tribes  over  whom  he 
had  exercised  authority,  for  they  recognized  in  him  a 
true  friend,  one  whose  word  was  his  bond,  and  a  man 
who  was  ever  ready  to  further  their  welfare.  Such  a  man 
deserves  to  be  held  in  kindly  remembrance.  He  was 
faithful  to  every  trust  imposed  upon  him.  Whatever  duty 
was  intrusted  to  him  was  well  done.  His  whole  life  had 
all  the  elements  of  romance,  but  its  entire  series  of  events 
were  always  controlled  by  some  useful,  practical  purpose 
and  of  direct  benefit  to  the  country  of  which  he  became  a 
citizen.  His  devotion  to  the  land  of  his  adoption  was  re 
produced  in  the  career  of  his  son,  David,  who  was  born 
at  Brooklyn  in  1816.  Educated  asfa  lawyer,  he  became 
very  popular  in  public  life^nd  served  in  Congress,  as  one 
of  the  Representatives  rof  Michigan,  from  December, 
1853,  to  March,  1855.  Then  he  removed  .to  Chicago  to 
become  attorney  for  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad.  In 
1 86 1,  when  the  war  broke  out,  he  went  to  the  front  as 
Colonel  of  the  Fifty-fifth  Illinois  Infantry,  and  com 
manded  a  brigade  under  Sherman.  After  being  wounded 
at  Shiloh,  he  was  laid  aside  from  military  service  for  a 
while,  but  soon  returned  to  active  duty,  and,  being  ap 
pointed  a  Brigadier  General  of  Volunteers,  performed 
brilliant  service  at  Corinth  and  other  places.  At  that 
time,  however,  political  feeling  ran  high,  and,  being  a 
Democrat,  Congress  failed  to  confirm  his  appointment, 
so  he  retired  from  the  army  and  resumed  the  practice  of 
law  at  Detroit.  He  died  there  in  1868. 

The  Scotch  pioneers  may  be  divided  into  three  classes 


G4  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

— those  whose  efforts  were  directed  to  wholesale  coloniz 
ing-;  those  who  braved  the  dangers  a#d  discomforts  of 
the  new  land  as  individual  settlers,  ancKthose  who  were 
simply  explorers.  In  the  first  of  these  classes,  a  most 
noted  figure  is  that  of  Thomas,  fifth  Earl  of  Selkirk — the 
brother  of  that  Lord  Daer  whose  only  title  to  remem 
brance,  or  immortality,  as  some  would  say,  lies  in  the 
fact  that  he  invited  Robert  Burns  to  dinner,  and  that  the 
latter  wrote  a  poem  about  it.  Lord  Selkirk  was  born  in 
1771,  and  in  1799  succeeded  to  his  ancestral  title  and 
estates.  Like  nearly  all  the  rest  of  his  family,  he  was 
possessed  of  much  public  spirit.  He  visited  America  in 
1802-3,  and  was  so  struck  by  the  benefits  which  were 
likely  to  accrue  to  his  countrymen  through  organized  im 
migration  that  throughout  his  career  he  never  ceased  to 
advocate  all  measures  tending  to  promote  the  settlement 
in  Canada  of  Scotch  colonies.  His  appearance  while 
traveling  in  America  is  thus  described  in  a  letter  written 
by  Mrs.  Thomas  Morris:  "  I  recollect  a  short  visit  from 
Prince  Ruspoli,  Grand  Master  of  the  Knights  of  Malta, 
and  in  a  few  days  from  Lord  Selkirk  on  his  journey  to 
visit  a  settlement  he  was  forming  in  Canada — far  to  the 
north.  He  struck  me  as  a  reserved,  diffident  young  man, 
almost  austere  in  his  dress,  with  heavy,  dusty  shoes  tied 
with  leather  thongs;  but  then,  to  support  his  aristocratic 
pretenses,  he  had  a  dandy  servant,  who  laid  out  his  toilet 
like  a  lady's."  His  first  experience  as  a  colonizer,  in 
Prince  Edward  Island,  was  very  encouraging.  In  the 
history  of  that  island  by  the  late  Duncan  Campbell,  we 
read:  "  The  Earl  of  Selkirk  brought  out  to  his  property 
about  800  souls.  They  were  located  on  land  north  and 
south  of  Point  Prim,  which  had  been  previously  occupied 
by  French  settlers,  but  a  large  portion  of  which  was  now 
again  covered  with  wood  and  thus  rendered  difficult  of 
cultivation.  Many  of  His  Lordship's  tenants  became  suc 
cessful  settlers/'  He  also  settled  a  colony  in  Kent,  Onta 
rio,  which  proved  very  prosperous. 

But  the  settlement  by  which  Lord  Selkirk  is  best  re 
membered  in  the  annals  of  Canada  is  that  of  the  Red 


PIONEERS.  65 

River  colony,  in  what  is  now  the  Province  of  Manitoba. 
While  residing  in  Montreal  he  heard  many  stories  of  the 
wonderful  fertility  of  the  Northwest,  and  saw  in  that  sec 
tion  an  unlimited  field  for  settlement.  He  bought  largely 
of  the  stock  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  and  through 
the  influence  he  thus  acquired,  he  was  enabled  to  induce 
that  corporation  to  sell  him  a  vast  tract  of  land  in  the 
Red  River  Valley  in  1811.  The  lands  were  fertile  and 
eminently  suited  for  an  agricultural  community.  Nature 
had  done  everything  possible  to  aid  man  to  reap  a  rich 
harvest  from  the  soil,  and  even  the  severity  of  the  Win 
ters  had  their  advantages.  The  settlers,  mainly  from 
Kildonan,  Sutherlandshire,  arrived  in  the  Fall  of  1812, 
and  were  given  holdings  around  Fort  Garry — the  site 
of  which  is  now  included  in  the  thriving  City  of  Winni 
peg.  It  was  a  wild  time.  The  rivalries  of  the  different 
fur-trading  companies  often  culminated  in  a  fight  in  the 
settlement,  and  the  Indians  harassed  the  colonists'  lives 
and  destroyed  their  crops.  The  first  Winter's  experience 
disheartened  many,  and  a  memorable  march  was  made 
by  the  faint-hearted  ones  back  to  civilization.  Those 
who  remained  encountered  many  misfortunes  and  dis 
asters,  and  we  read  that  in  a  battle  in  June,  1819 — the 
battle  of  Seven  Oaks — twenty  of  the  colonists  lost  their 
lives.  Then  they  had  to  abandon  their  holdings  and  were 
reduced  to  terrible  straits.  The  Earl  returned  to  America 
in  1817  and,  learning  of  the  troubles  in  the  Red  River 
Valley,  started  there  with  a  small  but  sufficient  force  to 
re-establish  his  authority.  This  was  successful,  life  and 
property  were  rendered  safe,  and  the  last  vestige  of  the 
Indian  claims  on  the  lands  was  removed  by  a  solemn 
treaty  with  the  chiefs  of  the  Salteaux  and  Cree  tribes. 
Lord  Selkirk  died  at  Paris  in  1821,  and  in  1836  the  Hud 
son  Bay  Company  repurchased  the  lands  from  his  heirs 
for  £84,000.  From  1817,  however,  Manitoba  gradually 
advanced  in  population  and  importance,  not  by  any 
"  boom,"  but  slowly  and  surely,  and  to-day  it  is  one  of 
the  most  progressive  of  the  provinces  in  the  Canadian 
federation.  In  its  entire  history  Scotsmen  crop  out  in 


66  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

every  page  and  predominate  in  all  the  commercial, 
financial,  manufacturing,  mining,  educational,  legisla 
tive,  and  other  interests  over  those  of  all  other  nationali 
ties. 

The  Mackenzie  River,  one  of  the  great  waterways  of 
Northwestern  Canada — a  navigable  stream  for  over  800 
miles  from  the  Great  Slave  Lake  to  the  Arctic  Ocean — 
takes  its  name  along  with  the  name  of  the  bay  at  its 
mouth  from  its  discoverer,  Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie. 
This  indefatigable  traveler  was  a  native  of  Inverness, 
where  he  was  born  in  1755.  He  was  a  merchant  in  Cana 
da,  and  after  he  became  connected  with  the  Northwest 
Fur  Company,  was  able  to  indulge  in  his  desire  for  ex 
ploration.  He  traveled  through  the  entire  Northwest, 
penetrating  over  the  Rockies  to  the  Pacific,  and  told  the 
story  of  his  adventures  and  discoveries,  notably  that  of 
the  Mackenzie  River,  in  1789,  in  a  modest  sort  of  way 
in  a  work  he  published  in  1801.  In  the  following  year 
he  was  knighted.  Another  Canadian  merchant  who  be 
came  an  explorer  was  Duncan  McTavish,  a  native  of 
Strathherrick,  Inverness-shire.  For  twenty-four  years  he 
traveled  through  the  Northwest  in  furtherance  of  the 
interests  of  the  Northwest  Company.  He  managed  to 
win  the  entire  confidence  of  the  Indians,  among  whom 
his  business  transactions  chiefly  lay.  While  engaged  in 
this  service  he  anticipated  one  of  the  purposes  of  the 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway  by  conceiving  the  idea  that 
the  natural  course  of  trade  between  the  Orient  and 
Europe  was  through  Canada,  and  it  was  while  making 
explorations  with  a  view  to  mapping  out  a  route  for  this 
trade  that  he  was  drowned,  with  six  companions,  near 
Cape  Disappointment,  on  the  Northern  Pacific  Ocean, 
in  1815.  The  name  of  McTavish  has  been  a  prominent 
one  in  the  history  of  the  far  Western  Provinces  of  Cana 
da.  John  George  McTavish,  one  of  the  partners  of  the 
Northwest  Company,  was  the  conqueror  at  Astoria  when 
that  port  had  to  be  abandoned,  and  dictated  the  terms  of 
surrender,  although  he  did  it  on  a  liberal  and  honorable 
.basis.  Another  of  the  same  sept,  William  McTavish,  who 


PIONEERS.  67 

left  Scotland  in  1833  and  entered  the  Hudson  Bay  Com 
pany  as  a  clerk,  became  its  chief  factor  in  1852.  After 
ward,  as  Governor  of  Assiniboia  and  of  Rupert's  Land, 
he  did  much  good  work  by  the  introduction  of  law  and 
order  into  those  then  wild  territories.  He  died  in  Liver 
pool,  while  on  a  European  trip  in  search  of  health,  in 
1872. 

Among  the  thousands  of  Scotsmen  whose  labors  and 
enterprise  made  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  as  impor 
tant  as  it  was  to  the  early  discovery  and  development  of 
Canada,  and  its  dividends  so  satisfactory  to  the  pockets 
of  its  stockholders,  none  held  a  higher  place  or  did  more 
good  work  than  George  Simpson.  He  was  a  native  of 
Lochbroom,  Ross-shire,  and  commenced  his  business 
career  as  a  clerk  in  a  merchant's  office  in  London.  He 
there  attracted  the  attention  of  Lord  Selkirk,  and  through 
that  nobleman's  interest  got  an  appointment  in  the  serv 
ice  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company.  Early  in  1820  Simpson 
sailed  for  Canada,  and  almost  as  soon  as  he  reached 
Montreal  started  off  to  his  post  of  duty  in  the  then  un 
known  lands  around  Lake  Athabasca.  His  first  Winter 
there  was  one  of  great  privation,  but  he  liked  the  work 
and  saw  in  it  an  opportunity  for  a  prosperous  future.  At 
that  time  the  rivalry  between  the  Hudson  Bay  Com 
pany  and  the  Northwest  Company  was  at  its  height,  but 
Simpson  acted  with  such  energy  that  when,  in  1821,  the 
rivals  pooled  their  issues,  he  was  appointed  Governor  of 
one  of  the  departments.  Indeed,  it  is  asserted  on  good 
grounds  that  it  was  at  his  suggestion  and  through  his 
diplomacy  that  the  coalition  of  the  rival  companies  was 
effected.  Subsequently  he -was  appointed  Governor  of 
Rupert's  Land  and  General  Superintendent  of  the  Hud 
son  Bay  Company's  affairs.  It  was  while  holding  these 
responsible  positions  that  he  promoted  those  schemes 
of  discovery  by  which  his  name  is  most  generally  re 
called.  Under  his  direction  most  of  the  Arctic  coast  was 
surveyed,  and  his  liberality,  his  apparently  intuitive  esti 
mate  of  the  capabilities  of  the  men  he  employed,  or  was 
associated  with,  or  called  to  his  assistance,  and  his  good 


68  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

judgment  in  planning  the  various  expeditions  he  fitted 
out  were  rewarded  with  knighthood  in  1841.  In  that 
year  he  made  a  tour  round  the  world,  an  account  of 
which  he  afterward  published  in  two  handsome  volumes. 
Sir  George's  closing  years  were  spent  at  Lachine,  near 
Montreal,  and  he  took  a  leading  part  in  financial  affairs 
in  that  city.  His  hospitality  was  unbounded,  and  only 
a  few  days  before  his  death,  in  1860,  he  entertained  the 
Prince  of  Wales  in  a  manner  befitting  the  heir  to  the 
British  throne. 

This  representative  Scot  had  a  brother,  Alexander 
Simpson,  who  was  a  trusted  official  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  was  for  a  long  time  afterward  British  Consul 
at  Hawaii,  and  enriched  the  literature  of  travel  by  the 
compilation  of  several  volumes  descriptive  of  places  he 
had  seen.  The  intellectual  genius  of  the  family,  how 
ever,  was  Thomas  Simpson,  a  cousin  of  the  two  already 
mentioned.  He  was  born  at  Dingwall  in  1808,  and  had 
a  brilliant  career  at  Aberdeen  University,  where  he  won, 
among  other  honors,  the  Huttonian  Prize.  On  complet 
ing  his  studies,  he  went  to  Canada  and  entered  the  serv 
ice  of  the  Hudson  Company.  His  immediate  work  seems 
to  have  been  more  scientific  than  commercial,  however, 
and  in  1836  he  was  placed  in  command  of  an  expedition 
which  succeeded  in  tracing  the  coast  line  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Mackenzie  River  to  Point  Barrow,  and  from  the 
mouth  of  Coppermine  River  to  the  Gulf  of  Boothia.  This 
expedition  occupied  over  three  years,  and  it  was  while 
returning  from  it,  in  1840,  that  he  was  murdered  by  some 
Indians  near  Turtle  River.  He  claimed  in  some  of  his 
memoranda  and  letters  to  have  discovered  a  clear  water 
passage  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  and  his 
claim  was  well  founded,  although  the  passage  has  been 
of  no  service  to  commerce.  The  dream  of  most  of  these 
Scotch  explorers  was  to  find  a  way  for  opening  up  a 
direct  trade  with  India  and  China,  either  through  Canada 
or  by  water.  At  that  time  railroads  were  still  in  the 
stages  of  early  experiment,  and  a  practical  waterway 
would  have  settled  the  question,  while  a  route  across  the 


PIONEERS.  (J9 

continent  would  have  been  more  difficult,  and  as  tedious 
and  costly  as  the  long  voyage  around  the  Cape,  which  it 
was  hoped  to  avoid.  Nowadays  the  Suez  Canal  and  the 
transcontinental  railroad  systems  have  brought  the  East 
very  much  nearer  to  the  commercial  centres  of  Europe 
and  taken  all  the  practical  interest  out  of  the  once  burn 
ing  question  of  a  Northwest  passage. 

Another  name  connected  with  the  New  Canada  is  that 
of  Sir  James  Douglas,  who  passed  away  at  Victoria, 
British  Columbia,  in  1877.  He  was  born  in  Demerara, 
British  Guiana,  of  Scotch  parents.  His  father  died  when 
James  was  a  lad,  and  he  went  with  an  elder  brother  to 
Canada.  There  he  entered  the  service  of  the  Northwest 
Company  and  was  soon  recognized  as  one  of  its  most 
adventurous  and  indomitable  agents.  When  that  com 
pany  consolidated  with  its  great  rival  he  was  advanced 
to  the  dignity  of  chief  factor.  In  that  capacity  he  visited 
even  the  most  distant  and  outlying  posts  of  the  company 
and  became  as  well  acquainted  with  the  "  primeval  for 
ests  and  everlasting  hills  "  as  the  Indians  themselves. 
His  adventures  were  many  and  dangerous.  Once,  for 
instance,  he  was  kept  a  close  prisoner  for  six  weeks  by 
some  Indians,  and  was  so  long  prevented  from  reporting 
his  whereabouts  that  he  was  supposed  to  have  been 
killed  by  the  red  men,  or  to  have  died  in  the  bush.  In 
1833  he  became  chief  agent  of  the  region  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  in  1851  was  made  Governor  of 
the  infant  colony  of  Vancouver.  In  1859,  when  Van 
couver  was  made  a  Crown  colony,  he  was  appointed  its 
Chief  Executive  by  the  Government,  and  made  a  Com 
panion  of  the  Bath.  In  1863  he  received  the  honor  of 
knighthood,  and  a  year  later  retired  to  private  life  to 
enjoy  a  few  years  of  well-earned  rest  before  answering  to 
the  last  great  call — the  call  that  summons  all  men. 

We  have  said  that  one  of  Sir  George  Simpson's  quali 
fications  as  a  successful  administrator  lay  in  his  ability 
to  judge  of  the  capacity  of  the  men  over  whom  he  had 
control.  An  instance  of  this  is  given  in  the  career  of  one 
of  his  most  trusted  associates,  that  of  Robert  Campbell, 


70  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

who  died  at  Winnipeg  in  1890,  at  the  ripe  old  age  of 
eighty-six.  Few  adventurers  attain  such  wealth  of  years, 
but  it  is  noticeable  of  the  Scotch  pioneers  in  the  Cana 
dian  Northwest  that  they  were  a  long-lived  race,  in  spite 
of  the  hardships  and  privations  and  dangers  through 
which  they  passed.  Campbell  was  born  in  Perthshire 
and  worked  on  his  father's  farm  until  his  twenty-second 
year,  when  he  entered  the  Hudson  Bay  Company's 
service.  One  of  his  first  duties  was  to  take  part  in  an 
expedition  to  Kentucky  to  purchase  a  lot  of  sheep  and 
convey  them  into  the  company's  territory.  The  journey 
from  Kentucky  to  Canada  with  the  animals  was  a  long 
and  tedious  one,  and  most  of  them  died  on  the  way.  It 
was  the  result  of  his  experiences  on  this  trip  that  induced 
Campbell,  long  afterward,  to  import  to  Manitoba  West 
Highland  cattle,  a  breed  which  is  better  adapted  for 
standing  the  climate  than  any  other.  In  1834  he  became 
attached  to  the  agency  at  Fort  Simpson,  and  showed  his 
mettle  by  volunteering  to  establish  a  post  on  Dease's 
Lake,  a  position  of  great  danger,  as  the  Indians  there 
were  in  the  service  of  Russian  traders  and  bitterly  op 
posed  to  the  incursions  of  the  British  adventurers.  He 
held  his  position  there  in  spite  of  jealousies  and  dangers, 
and  made  it  fairly  remunerative. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  pioneer  services 
of  the  Scottish  race,  and  we  leave  that  branch  of  our 
subject  here,  although  it  might  be  extended  almost  in 
definitely.  Such  names  as  those  we  have  dwelt  upon, 
and  hundreds  of  others  that  might  be  mentioned,  are 
really  part  and  parcel  of  the  history  of  the  Northwestern 
provinces,  and  when  that  history  comes  to  be  fittingly 
written,  the  names  of  these  Scotch  pioneers,  traders,  and 
merchants  will  certainly,  if  the  history  be  an  honest  one, 
receive  due  and  deserved  prominence.  Nor  is  the  race 
extinct  even  yet.  The  pioneers  are  no  longer  fur  traders, 
but  Government  surveyors,  and  year  after  year  the  irn^ 
mense  territory  to  the  north  of  the  settled  strip  along  the, 
great  lakes  is  being  made  known  to  the  world  by  a  num^ 
ber  of  hardy  scientists,  and  such  names  among  them  as 


PIONEERS.  71 

Gordon,  Ogilvie,  Ross,  Robertson,  and  McLatchie  are 
sufficiently  indicative  that  Scotland  is  still  to  the  front  in 
bringing  a  knowledge  of  the  resources  of  Canada  to  the 
civilized  world.  It  was  one  of  these  pioneers,  Andrew 
R.  Gordon,  a  native  of  Aberdeen,  who  first  demonstrated 
the  advisability  of  a  railroad  connection  between  Winni 
peg  and  Hudson's  Bay,  and  when  his  plans  are  carried 
out,  as  they  are  certain  sooner  or  later  to  be,  Manitoba 
will  be  in  direct,  cheap,  and  comparatively  easy  com 
munication  with  Europe  for  at  least  six  months  in  each 
year,  while  Winnipeg  will  rival  Glasgow  as  a  commer 
cial  centre. 

Nor  is  the  spirit  of  colonizing  yet  dead.  It  is  still  help 
ing  to  people  Manitoba  and  other  new  Canadian  prov 
inces,  and  every  now  and  again  we  hear  of  fresh  colonies 
arriving  from  the  old  land  and  settling  down  on  the  far 
West  in  this  country  as  well  as  in  Canada,  and  even  in 
some  of  the  Southern  States.  Sometimes  such  colonies 
turn  out  disastrously,  as  did  one  or  two  that  settled  a 
few  years  ago  in  North  Carolina,  mainly  because  they 
were  badly  managed  and  because  the  ground  selected 
was  unfitted  for  cultivation.  In  short,  the  colonies  failed 
because  the  colonists  were  the  victims  of  land  sharks, 
and  had  not  taken  the  precaution  of  fully  acquainting 
themselves  with  all  the  facts  in  the  case.  But  such 
failures  are  exceptions,  and  these  colonies  are  generally 
successful,  even  when  they  cast  their  lot  in  some  of  the 
older  settled  portions  of  the  continent.  In  1873  a  colony 
was  settled  in  Victoria  County,  New  Brunswick,  certain 
ly  not  a  part  of  Canada  which  is  very  extensively 
"  boomed  "  for  its  fertility  or  its  future.  A  recent  visitor 
to  the  settlement  writes:  "The  colony  was  organized  by 
a  Capt.  Brown,  belonging  to  Kincardineshire,  who 
brought  the  people  over  in  the  Castilia,  a  steamer  of 
which  he  was  commander.  A  large  proportion  of  these, 
colonists  were  from  the  Mearns,  some  from  Aberdeen, 
Montrose,  Forfar,  Kirriemuir,  and  Glasgow.  One  man, 
I  found,  was  from  Inverarity,  and  his  wife  from  Dundee. 
This  lady  told  me  she  had  been  born  and  brought  up  in 


72 


THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 


Dundee,  but  had  never  been  down  the  length  of  the 
[Broughty]  Ferry.  Those  who  have  been  most  success 
ful  and  are  the  most  contented  are  those  who  have  been 
at  farm  service  in  the  Old  Country.  Here,  they  say,  they 
enjoy  a  degree  of  independence,  comfort,  and  style  of 
living  which  they  never  could  have  attained  at  home." 

Thus,  among  the  pioneers  of  the  American  Continent, 
in  all  classes,  dignified  and  humble,  we  find  the  Scot 
holding  a  position  which  is  everywhere  honorable  to  his 
nationality  and  helpful  to  the  continent  itself.  His  efforts 
have  ever  been  on  the  side  of  law  and  order,  have  ever 
been  on  conservative  lines,  and  have  been  accomplished 
with  a  disregard  of  personal  danger  worthy  of  the  repre 
sentative  of  a  nation  whose  struggle  for  civil  and  re 
ligious  freedom  has  made  personal  heroism  to  be  ac 
cepted  by  the  world  as  one  of  the  most  noted  character 
istics  of  the  race. 


CHAPTER  III. 

COLONIAL     GOVERNORS. 

ONE  of  the  most  interesting  figures  in  the  military 
service  of  King  William  III.  and  of  Queen  Anne  was 
Lord  George  Hamilton  Douglas,  son  of  Duchess  Anne 
of  Hamilton  and  her  husband,  William,  Earl  of  Selkirk, 
who  was  created  Duke  of  Hamilton  at  her  request.  Lord 
George  was  born  in  1666  and  was  bred  a  soldier.  In  1690 
he  was  made  a  Colonel  and  two  years  later  was  in  com 
mand  of  the  Royal  Scots  Regiment.  His  skill  and  bravery 
in  the  field,  in  Ireland  and  Flanders,  commended  him  to 
King  William,  who  awarded  him  the  rank  of  Brigadier 
General,  and  in  1696  conferred  on  him  the  old  Scotch 
title  of  Earl  of  Orkney.  To  complete  his  happiness,  the 
King  gave  the  wife  of  the  new  peer  a  grant  of  most  of 
the  private  estates  in  Ireland  of  King  James  II.  Queen 
Anne  was  profuse  in  her  favors  to  the  Earl  of  Orkney, 
who  served  with  distinction  in  her  wars,  under  Marl- 
borough,  and  helped  very  materially  to  win  such  victo 
ries  as  Blenheim,  Ramillies,  and  Oudenarde.  She  com 
missioned  him  a  Lieutenant  General,  made  him  a  Privy 
Councillor,  a  Knight  of  the  Thistle,  and  he  was  one  of 
the  peers  of  Scotland  who  were  returned  to  Parliament 
after  the  Union.  King  George  I.  continued  the  series  of 
royal  favors  which  marked  the  career  of  this  favorite  of 
fortune.  He  appointed  him  a  "  Gentleman  Extraordi 
nary  "  of  the  Bedchamber,  an  honorary  office  which  gave 
the  Earl  a  position  at  Court;  Governor  of  Edinburgh 
Castle,  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Lanarkshire,  a  Field  Mar 
shal,  and  he  died  at  London  in  1737,  in  possession  of  all 
his  faculties  and  honors. 
73 


74  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Another  of  the  honorary  offices  held  by  this  much 
favored  individual  was  that  of  Governor  of  Virginia.  The 
Earl  of  Orkney  never  saw  America  and  knew  nothing 
,  of  Virginia  except  its  name,  and  probably  cared  little 
;  about  it  except  for  the  emoluments  his  office  as  its  Gov 
ernor  brought  him.  Such  titular  honors  were  very  nu 
merous  in  the  history  of  the  royal  families  of  Europe, 
and  America  since  its  discovery  has  furnished  a  goodly 
share  of  them.  If  Lord  Orkney  did  Virginia  no  good, 
he  certainly  did  it  no  harm,  and  that,  at  all  events,  is 
more  than  can  be  said  of  many  of  those  who  tried 
their  hands  at  serious  statesmanship  by  muddling  and 
marring  its  affairs.  His  possession  of  the  office  gives 
him  a  sort  of  left-handed  claim  to  recognition  in  a  work 
like  this,  although  he  more  properly  belongs  to  the 
story  of  the  Scot  in  Europe,  in  which,  indeed,  his 
achievements  and  honors  make  him  a  striking  figure. 
Hardly  as  much  can  be  said  of  a  later  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  whose  connection  with  the  province  was  also 
merely  titular,  and  who  never  saw  it,  although  he  served 
with  the  army  in  America.  That  was  John  Campbell, 
fourth  Earl  of  Loudoun,  whose  rather  inglorious  mili 
tary  career  in  America,  as  commander  in  chief  of  the 
forces,  lasted  a  little  over  a  year,  and  was  terminated  by 
his  sudden  recall.  He  was  appointed  Governor  in  1756, 
but  his  time  in  America  was  devoted  entirely  to  his  mili 
tary  duties.  His  transatlantic  failure  did  not  apparently 
affect  his  standing  at  home,  and  he  continued  the  recipi 
ent  of  many  honors  until  his  death,  in  1782. 

William  Drummond,  who  was  Governor  of  "  Albe- 
marle  County  Colony,"  was  as  active  and  aggressive  in 
American  affairs  as  the  two  personages  just  named  were 
not.  Drummond,  who  was  a  native  of  Perthshire,  justly 
ranks  as  one  of  the  earliest  of  American  patriots.  He 
took  a  prominent  part  in  Nathaniel  Bacon's  insurrec 
tion  in  1676,  an  insurrection  that  was  brought  about  by 
the  insolence  and  pig-headedness  of  Sir  William  Berke 
ley,  then  Governor  of  Virginia,  to  which  Albemarle 
County  (North  Carolina)  was  subject.  Drummond,  who 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  75 

is  described  by  Bancroft  as  a  "  former  Governor  of  North 
Carolina,"  did  good  work  in  that  uprising  in  sup 
porting  the  rights  of  the  people,  and,  though  he  has  been 
blamed  for  the  part  he  took  in  the  burning  of  James 
town,  it  might  be  pleaded  that  that  act  was,  in  the 
opinion  of  himself  and  his  comrades,  a  grim  necessity  of 
war.  When  the  insurrection  was  crushed  by  circum 
stances  which  could  not  be  foreseen,  and  Drummond 
was  led  a  prisoner  to  the  presence  of  Berkeley,  that  cow 
ardly  braggadocio  said,  exultingly :  "  You  are  very  wel 
come.  I  am  more  glad  to  see  you  than  any  man  in 
Virginia.  You  shall  be  hanged  in  half  an  hour." 
Glorifying  in  the  part  he  had  taken  in  the  movement  for 
individual  liberty,  Drummond  met  his  fate  like^the  brave 
man  that  he  was,  his  only  concern  being  about  the  future 
of  his  wife  and  children.  So  many  lives  were  sacrificed 
in  furtherance  of  the  Governor's  desire  for  revenge  that 
even  Charles  II.,  who  really  valued  no  life  but  his  own, 
exclaimed  when  the  news  was  brought  to  him:  "  The  old 
fool  has  taken  away  more  lives  in  that  naked  country 
than  I  for  the  murder  of  my  father!"  Drummond's 
wife  and  little  ones  were  thrust  from  their  home  and  re 
duced  to  actual  want,  their  necessities  being  relieved 
only  by  the  charitable  kindness  of  the  neighboring 
planters. 

The  most  notable  of  the  Scottish  Colonial  rulers  of 
Virginia  in  many  ways  was  Alexander  Spottiswood,  who 
served  as  Lieutenant  Governor  from  1710  to  1722.  He 
was  a  scion  of  a  noted  family — the  Spottiswoods  of 
Spottiswood  in  Berwickshire,  the  descent  of  which  could 
be  traced  back  to  the  time  of  Alexander  III.  One  of  his 
ancestors  fell  at  Flodden,  and  another  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  adopted  the  new  tenets,  became  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Kirk,  was  Superintendent  (a  title  that  did 
not  exactly  mean  Bishop,  but  rather  something  like  fore 
man  minister,)  of  Lothian,  and  was  very  prominent  in 
national  and  church  affairs  until  a  few  years  before  his 
death,  in  1581.  The  Superintendent's  son  became  Arch 
bishop  of  St.  Andrews.  The  Archbishop's  second  son, 


76  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Sir  Robert  Spottiswood,  President  of  the  Court  of  Ses 
sions  and  Secretary  of  State  for  Scotland,  was  beheaded 
for  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  royal  family  of  Stu 
art.  One  of  the  sons  of  this  unfortunate  statesman  left 
Scotland  to  seek  his  fortune,  and  became  physician  to 
the  garrison  at  Tangiers.  Governor  Spottiswood  was 
the  only  son  of  this  wanderer.  Spottiswood  entered 
the  army  in  early  life,  and  served  in  Flanders  under 
Marlborough,  with  the  utmost  credit.  He  was  severely 
wounded  at  Blenheim.  Among  his  friends  in  the  army 
was  the  Earl  of  Orkney,  with  whose  name  we  opened  this 
chapter,  and  when  that  nobleman  was  appointed  Gov 
ernor  of  Virginia  he  secured  the  selection  of  Spottis 
wood  as  Lieutenant.  He  proved  a  wise  ruler  in  his  ex 
ecutive  relations,  and  probably  was  the  most  popular  of 
all  the  representatives  of  the  crown  who  ever  adminis 
tered  the  affairs  of  the  province.  His  first  act,  that  of 
promulgating  the  habeas  corpus  law,  was  in  itself  an 
opening  wedge  to  a  term  of  popularity,  and  he  availed 
himself  of  it  to  the  utmost.  He  conciliated  the  red  men 
and  tried  to  improve  their  condition.  He  promoted 
education,  and  was  enthusiastic  over  the  fortunes  of  the 
recently  established  William  and  Mary  College.  He 
gave,  considerable  thought  to  agricultural  improvement, 
and  was  especially  anxious  and  helpful  in  improving  the 
cultivation  of  tobacco,  at  that  time  Virginia's  great  ex 
port  and  principal  source  of  wealth.  He  also  introduced 
the  manufacture  of  iron  into  the  province,  and  sought 
by  the  aid  of  exploring  parties  to  give  to  the  world  a 
correct  conception  of  its  resources  and  extent.  Under 
him  Virginia  enjoyed  a  period  of  great  prosperity,  and 
its  importance  in  every  way  was  gieatly  augmented. 
Had  all  the  Colonial  Governors  been  men  of  his  stamp 
and  brains  there  would  have  been  no  Revolution,  for  the 
need  would  never  have  arisen. 

Perhaps  the  secret  of  Governor  Spottiswood's  success 
lay  in  the  fact  that  he  seems  to  have  made  up  his  mind 
to  settle  permanently  in  the  country.  He  was  not  a  car 
pet-bagger  in  the  modern  sense,  or  a  gentleman  advent- 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  77 

urer,  as  that  term  was  employed  in  the  reign  of  good 
Queen  Anne.  He  aimed  to  promote  the  best  interests  of 
the  country,  to  preserve  the  peace  within  its  bounds  by 
conciliating  all  classes,  by  encouraging  trade,  and  by 
protecting  to  the  extent  of  his  ability  life,  property,  and 
personal  liberty.  He  was  a  true  patriot,  and  a  true 
American  citizen,  and  as  his  home  was  with  the  people 
he  ruled,  he  had  no  temptation  to  grow  rich  at  their  ex 
pense,  that  he  might  go  elsewhere  and  have  no  further 
interest  in  the  colony  beyond  the  agreeable  fancies  of 
pleasant  reminiscences. 

In  many  respects  a  Lieutenant  Governor  of  a  very 
different  stamp  was  Robert  Dinwiddie,  who  ruled  over 
the  destinies  of  Virginia  from  1752  to  1758.  He  was 
born  near  Glasgow  in  1690,  his  father  being  a  mer 
chant  in  that  city,  and  his  mother  the  daughter  of  one 
of  its  magistrates.  Dinwiddie  has  often  been  spoken  of  . 
as  the  discoverer  of  "George  Washington,  as  he  was  the  --j 
first  to  call  the  "  Father  of  His  Country  "  into  the  pub 
lic  service,  but  if  he  ever  entertained  any  regard  for 
Washington  it  did  not  last  very  long.  The  time  during 
which  Dinwiddie  stood  at  the  helm  in  Virginia  was  one 
that  required  the  exhibition  of  the  most  statesmanlike 
qualities,  and  these  Dinwiddie  does  not  seem  to  have 
possessed.  His  mind  was  not  of  the  comprehensive  or 
der;  he  could  not  look  beyond  the  exigencies  of  the 
hour;  he  was  fretful  and  spiteful,  and  more  fond  of  ex 
hibiting  the  powers  than  the  graces  of  his  office.  Wash 
ington  Irving  sums  up  his  character  in  these  stinging 
words,  which  seem  to  be  a  logical  arraignment  of  his 
shortcomings  if  we  may  judge  by  the  known  facts  in  his 
career:  "  He  set  sail  for  England  in  1758,  very  little  re 
gretted,  excepting  by  his  immediate  hangers-on,  and 
leaving  a  character  overshadowed  by  the  imputation  of 
avarice  and  extortion  in  the  exaction  of  illegal  fees  and  of 
downright  delinquency  in  regard  to  large  sums  trans 
mitted  to  him  by  Government  to  be  paid  over  to  the 
province  in  indemnification  of  its  extra  expenses,  for  the 
disposition  of  which  he  failed  to  render  an  account.  He 


78  THE     SCOT    IN     AMERICA. 

was  evidently  a  sordid,  narrow-minded,  and  somewhat 
arrogant  man;  bustling  rather  than  active;  prone  to 
meddle  with  matters  of  which  he  was  profoundly  igno 
rant,  and  absurdly  unwilling  to  have  his  ignorance  en 
lightened."  It  seems  a  pity  for  the  sake  of  Dinwiddie's 
good  name  that  he  had  not  remained  in  Glasgow  and 
become  a  merchant,  possibly  a  deacon,  like  his  father 
and  a  bailie  like  his  maternal  grandfather. 

One  of  the  titled  Governors  of  Virginia  who  was  much 
more  than  a  mere  nonentity  was  John,  fourth  Earl  of 
Dunmore.  His  family  was  an  offshoot  of  the  ducal  one 
of  Athol.  He  was  destined  for  a  military  career,  but 
was  poor  and  unable  to  add  much  to  his  wealth  by  the 
chance  of  war,  while  his  wife,  though  a  daughter  of  the 
ancient  house  of  Galloway,  did  not  bring  him  any  very 
tangible  accession  to  his  worldly  goods.  When,  there 
fore,  he  received  the  appointment,  in  1770,  of  Governor 
of  New  York,  he  gladly  accepted  it,  because  he  saw  in 
the  appointment  a  chance  of  increasing  his  personal  re 
sources.  In  short,  he  crossed  over  to  America  simply  to 
make  as  much  money  as  he  could  out  of  it,  and  without 
much  concern  as  to  whether  or  not  the  country  was  to 
be  benefited  by  his  services.  It  was,  however,  a  period 
demanding  the  utmost  tact  and  diplomacy,  qualities 
Lord  Dunmore  either  did  not  possess,  or  did  not  deem 
it  worth  his  while,  when  he  had  the  chance,  to  exhibit; 
and  in  these  facts  lie  the  causes  for  his  ignoble  American 
career,  and  the  poltroonery,  the  crime,  the  silliness  by 
which  it  was  most  distinguished.  The  Revolutionary 
movement  at  the  time  of  Lord  Dunmore's  arrival  in 
America  was  approaching1  a  crisis.  Discontent  was  in 
the  air,  uneasiness  was  prevalent  everywhere.  But  the 
Virginians  wrere  then  loyal  to  the  crown,  and  a  wise 
Governor  should  have  strengthened  that  loyalty  by 
every  means  in  his  power,  instead  of  acting  in  a  manner, 
as  Lord  Dunmore  did,  to  deepen  the  discontent,  to  fan 
the  flames  of  sedition  and  to  drive  the  people  into  open  * 
revolt.  Had  his  Lordship  really  been  a  statesman  he  had 
the  opportunity  while  in  America  of  doing  yeoman  serv- 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  79 

ice  for  his  sovereign,  but  his  actions  while  in  the  coun 
try  failed  to  exhibit  any  signs  of  his  possession  of  that 
quality.  He  was  for  self  first,  last,  and  all  the  time,  and 
when  Virginia  was  too  hot  to  hold  him — he  ran  away. 

While  in  New  York  Lord  Dunmore  was  very  popu 
lar,  for  his  term  of  service  did  not  last  long  enough  to 
bring  any  of  his  ignoble  qualities  to  the  front,  but  he 
seems  to  have  attended  strictly  to  his  u  ain  "  business 
and  acquired  some  50,000  acres  of  land  in  the  State. 
He  was  transferred  to  the  much  more  valuable  post  of 
Virginia  in  less  than  a  year,  and  was  heartily  welcomed 
on  his  arrival  in  his  new  sphere  of  usefulness.  His  first 
act  bound  him  closely  to  the  hearts  of  the  Virginians, 
for  he  indorsed  cordially  their  remonstrances  to  the  Home 
Government  against  the  continuation  of  the  slave  trade. 
This  popularity  continued  for  two  or  three  years,  during 
which  time  he  waxed  rich  in  land  and  fees  and  concealed 
his  personal  schemes  with  the  utmost  craft.  In  1774, 
when  he  was  joined  by  his  Countess,  the  Assembly  pre 
sented  her  with  an  address  of  welcome,  and  got  up  a 
grand  ball  in  her  honor.  When  her  daughter  was  born 
she  named  it  Virginia  in  honor  of  a  province  which  had 
so  warmly  welcomed  her.  A  year  later  the  poor  woman 
was  glad  to  take  refuge  on  a  British  vessel,  as  she  con 
sidered  her  life  in  danger  at  the  hands  of  these  same 
Virginians.  Lord  Dunmore's  troubles  came  on  him  all 
in  a  heap.  He  had  had  a  little  war  with  the  red  men,  and 
had  conducted  it  so  successfully  and  had  brought  about 
such  a  favorable  peace  that  the  Legislature  gave  him  a 
sort  of  vote  of  confidence,  in  which  his  management  of 
affairs  was  spoken  of  as  "  truly  noble,  wise,  and  spirited." 
His  agents,  however,  were  out  trying  to  annex  lands, 
and  win  fees,  as  far  West  as  Cincinnati,  and  some  even 
operated  on  the  soil  of  Pennsylvania,  inviting  trouble 
and  complaint  from  that  quarter.  Then,  when  the 
troubles  with  the  home  country  were  elsewhere  ap 
proaching  a  crisis,  he  precipitated  the  outbreak  in  Vir 
ginia  by  seizing  the  powder  stored  in  Williamsburg,  by 
his  arrogant  manner,  by  his  threatening  to  arm  the  ne- 


80  'THE    SCOT    IN    AMERICA. 

groes  and  the  Indians  against  the  white  residents,  and 
by  several  other  unwise  sayings  and  doings.  It  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  Lady  Dunmore  was  soon  joined 
on  the  vessel  in  which  she  had  taken  refuge  by  her  hus 
band,  himself  a  fugitive,  and  that  Virginia  quickly  threw 
off  her  allegiance  and  ranged  herself  on  the  side  of  the 
Revolutionists.  The  rest  of  Dunmore's  American  story 
is  equally  contemptible.  His  wanton  destruction  of 
Norfolk  cannot  be  defended  on  grounds  either  of  mili 
tary  necessity  or  the  demands  of  statesmanship,  and 
when  he  finally  returned  to  Britain,  it  was  with  anything 
but  the  record  of  a  hero.  But  his  prestige  does  not  ap 
pear  to  have  suffered,  although  it  might  truly  be  said 
that  his  foolishness  and  personal  greed  had  lost  Britain 
a  province.  He  continued  to  be  elected  to  Parliament 
by  his  brother  peers  of  Scotland,  and  in  1787  he  was 
sent  to  the  Bahamas  as  Captain  General  and  Governor, 
and  there  resided,  an  inoffensive  figurehead,  for  several 
years  before  he  returned  home  again  to  adorn  society 
until  his  death,  in  1806. 

It  is  refreshing  to  turn  from  such  a  personage  to  recall 
the  nobler  career  of  George  Johnstone,  who  was  nom 
inated  in  1763  Governor  of  Florida,  when  that  colony 
was  ceded  by  Spain  to  Great  Britain.  Johnstone,  who 
belonged  to  the  family  of  Johnstone  of  Westerhall,  was  a 
Captain  in  the  Royal  Navy,  a  hero  in  every  sense  of 
the  word,  and  a  capable  man  of  affairs,  as  was  abund 
antly  proved  by  his  course  in  Florida,  and  his  career 
in  Parliament.  In  1778  he  was  one  of  the  Commission 
ers  sent  out  by  the  British  Government  to  try  and  re 
store  peace  in  America,  and  was  noted  as  being  out 
spoken  in  his  sympathy  with  the  American  people,  and 
in  his  condemnation  of  the  wrongs  which  had  driven 
them  into  revolt.  But  events  had  by  that  time  pro 
gressed  so  far  that  peace  could  only  be  procured  through 
independence  or  annihilation,  and  so  the  commission  ac 
complished  no  practical  result,  but  Johnstone,  by  a  cu 
rious  turn  in  his  thoughts  and  sympathies,  then  changed 
his  ideas  of  the  American  people  and  thenceforth  was 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  81 

among  their  bitterest  detractors.  Gov.  Johnstone's  term 
of  office  is  additionally  interesting  in  that  it  was  the 
means  of  bringing  James  Macpherson,  the  translator  of 
Ossian,  to  the  country,  although  only  for  a  short  time. 
In  Mr.  Bailey  Saunders's  interesting  monograph  on  that 
literary  hero,  we  read:  "  In  October  (1763)  one  George 
Johnstone  was  gazetted  Governor  of  the  Western  Prov 
inces  and  ordered  to  Pensacola.  Like  most  of  the  other 
American  Governors,  Johnstone  was  a  Scotchman.  Mac 
pherson  was  offered  an  appointment  as  his  secretary,  and, 
in  addition,  the  posts  of  President  of  the  Council  and 
Surveyor  General.  It  was  a  strange  shift  in  the  breeze  of 
his  fortune,  and  of  the  reasons  which  led  him  to  yield  to 
it  we  have  no  knowledge.  He  may  have  resented  the 
treatment  which  he  was  receiving  from  men  of  letters  in 
London,  or  he  may  have  found  himself  in  pecuniary  or 
other  difficulties.  Certain  it  is,  that  in  the  early  part  of 
the  following  year,  he  set  his  sails  for  America.  He  was 
absent  about  two  years,  but  only  a  portion  of  that  time 
was  spent  at  Pensacola,  for  he  soon  quarrelled  with  his 
chief  and  departed  on  a  visit  to  some  of  the  other  prov 
inces.  After  a  tour  in  the  West  Indies  he  returned  in 
1766.  As  Surveyor  General,  he  had  received  a  salary  of 
£200  a  year.  In  a  day  when  pensions  formed  a  larger 
part  of  the  machinery  of  the  State  than  at  present,  Mac 
pherson  was  allowed  to  retain  it  for  life  on  the  condition, 
so  far  as  can  be  gathered,  that  he  should  devote  himself 
henceforth  to  political  writing."  America  seems,  however, 
to  have  made  little  impression  on  the  hero  of  the  Ossianic 
controversy,  if  we  may  estimate  the  extent  of  that  im 
pression  by  his  silence. 

A  notable  and  lovable,  and,  in  every  way  commend 
able,  career  was  that  of  Gabriel  Johnston,  who  was  Gov 
ernor  of  North  Carolina  from  1734  till  his  death,  in 
Chowan  County,  in  that  State,  in  1752.  Little  is  known  of 
his  early  career  in  Scotland  except  that  he  was  born  there 
in  1699  and  that  he  studied  medicine  at  St.  Andrews  Uni 
versity,  but  he  had  a  predilection  for  the  study  of  lan 
guages  and  never  practiced.  Instead,  he  became  Professor 


82  THE   SCOT   IN   AMERICA. 

of  Oriental  Languages  at  St.  Andrews,  and  taught  for 
several  years.  Then  he  removed  to  London  and  became 
a  literary  hack,  his  most  notable  employment  being  un 
der  Lord  Bolingbroke  on  the  latter's  periodical,  "  The 
Craftsman."  Johnston  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  1730,  in 
tending  to  settle  in  America,  and  three  years  later, 
through  the  influence  of  the  Earl  of  Wilmington,  he  was 
appointed  Lieutenant  Governor  of  North  Carolina,  and 
showed  his  gratitude,  among  other  ways,  by  naming  the 
town  of  Wilmington  after  his  benefactor.  Johnston's  life 
here  was  one  of  peacefulness.  His  administration  was  in 
every  way  wise  and  beneficent,  and,  although  even  in  his 
time  there  were  murmurs  against  the  Home  Government, 
he  kept  his  charge  well  in  hand  and  thoroughly  loyal  to 
the  Crown.  One  of  his  first  acts  as  Governor  was  to  urge 
upon  the  Colonial  Assembly  the  need  of  making  pro 
vision  for  a  thorough  school  system,  and  in  educational 
matters  he  took  a  deep  personal  interest  to  the  end.  It 
was  during  his  administration,  too,  that  the  great  influx 
of  Scotch  Highlanders  took  place  into  North  Carolina. 
Thousands  of  these  people  settled  in  the  Counties  of 
Bladen,  Cumberland,  Robeson,  Moore,  Richmond,  and 
Hamet,  among  others,  and  their  descendants  predomi 
nate  in  these  sections  till  the  present  day.  At  Gov. 
Gabriel's  suggestion,  his  brother,  John  Johnston,  crossed 
to  America  from  Dundee  in  1736,  and  settled  in  North 
Carolina.  Among  the  rest  of  this  man's  family  was  a  child 
who  had  been  born  in  Dundee  three  years  before.  This 
was  Samuel  Johnston,  afterward  a  noted  figure  in  the 
history  of  the  State.  At  the  Governor's  suggestion,  Sam 
uel  studied  for  the  bar,  and  in  a  short  time  after  he  had 
passed  was  in  possession  of  a  large  practice.  When  he 
grew  to  manhood  he  knew  no  other  country  except  that 
in  which  he  had  been  raised,  and  was  one  of  the  earliest 
to  earn  the  title  of  patriot.  When  the  troubles  with  the 
mother  country  began  to  take  practical  shape,  Samuel 
Johnston  was  one  of  the  trusted  leaders  of  the  Americans 
in  the  State.  In  1775  he  was  elected  Chairman  of  the 
Provincial  Council,  and  as  such,  by  force  of  circum- 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  83 

stances,  which  need  not  be  enlarged  upon  here,  virtually 
Governor  of  the  State.  Bancroft  says  of  him  at  this  junct 
ure  :  "  On  the  waters  of  Albemarle  Sound  *  *  the 
movement  [for  freedom,  or  at  least  a  removal  of  oppres 
sion]  was  assisted  by  the  writings  of  young  James  Ire- 
dell,  from  England,  by  the  letters  and  counsels  of  young 
Joseph  Hewes,  and  by  the  calm  wisdom  of  Samuel  John 
ston,  a  native  of  Dundee,  in  Scotland,  a  man  revered  for 
his  integrity,  thoroughly  opposed  to  disorder  and  revolu 
tion,  if  revolution  could  be  avoided  without  yielding  to 
oppression."  When  the  die  was  finally  cast  and  absolute 
separation  from  the  mother  country  was  demanded,  John 
ston  did  not  flinch,  but  cast  in  his  lot  with  those  who  de 
manded  independence.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Conti 
nental  Congress  in  1781  and  1782,  was  elected  Governor 
of  his  State  in  1788,  served  four  years  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  and  from  1800  to  1803  was  a  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  He  closed  his  long, 
useful,  and  patriotic  career  at  Edenton,  North  Carolina, 
in  1816,  and  his  memory  is  yet  one  of  the  greenest  in  that 
beautiful  State. 

Besides  furnishing  in  these  later  clays  a  popular  Gov 
ernor  General  to  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  in  the  person 
of  the  Marquis  of  Lome,  the  house  of  Argyll  has  given  at 
least  two  Governors  to  territories  south  of  the  St.  Law 
rence.  One  of  these  was  Lord  William  Campbell,  youngest 
son  of  the  fourth  Duke  of  Argyll.  He  served  in  the  Royal 
Navy  and  held  the  rank  of  Captain  when,  in  1766,  he  was 
appointed  Governor  of  Nova  Scotia.  He  arrived  at  Hali 
fax  on  Nov,  27  of  that  year,  and  at  once  assumed  control 
of  affairs.  He  proved  a  satisfactory,  if  not  a  brilliant 
administrator  and  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  people. 
He  faithfully  carried  their  representations  to  the  Home 
Government  and  preserved  the  relations  of  the  colony  to 
the  mother  country  unimpaired.  He  was  watchful  over 
the  morals  of  the  people,  too,  and  in  one  of  his  orders  he 
peremptorily  forbade  public  horse  racing  at  Halifax  on 
account  of  its  tending  to  "  gambling,  idleness,  and  im 
morality."  In  1763  he  married  Sarah  Izard,  belonging  to 


84  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

a  wealthy  South  Carolina  family,  and  sister  of  that  Ralph 
Izard  who  became  distinguished  as  an  American  patriot, 
as  a  warm  friend  and  unwavering  supporter  of  Washing 
ton,  and  as  the  first  representative  of  South  Carolina  in 
the  United  States  Senate.  It  was  his  union  with  this  lady 
that  led,  in  one  way  or  another,  to  his  receiving  the 
appointment,  in  1775,  of  Governor  of  South  Caro 
lina,  and  thither  he  removed  in  that  year.  Before  he  left 
Nova  Scotia  he  was  presented  with  an  address  of  thanks 
from  the  Legislature,  extolling  his  career  as  Governor 
and  regretting  that  circumstances  should  sever  their 
pleasant  relations.  Lord  William  was  probably  not  very 
long  at  his  new  sphere  of  duty  ere  he  joined  in  that  re 
gret.  The  Commonwealth  was  really  in  a  state  of  re 
bellion  when  Lord  William  arrived,  and  the  address 
which  the  Provincial  Council  addressed  to  him  on  that 
occasion  must  have  sounded  strange  in  his  ears.  "  No  lust 
of  independence,"  it  said,  "  has  the  least  influence  upon 
our  councils;  no  subjects  more  sincerely  desire  to  testify 
their  loyalty  and  affection.  We  deplore  the  measures 
which,  if  persisted  in,  must  rend  the  British  Empire. 
Trusting  the  event  to  Providence,  we  prefer  death  to 
slavery."  What  was  wanted  in  such  a  crisis  was  a  policy 
of  conciliation,  an  exhibition  of  statesmanship.  Lord 
William  tried  an  opposite  policy  and  appears  to  have  been 
utterly  destitute  of  the  necessary  qualities  to  guide  a 
statesman  in  a  storm.  His  siiDercilious  contempt  for  the 
claims  and  opinions  of  the  Carolinians  helped  only  to 
embitter  them  still  more.  He  held  out  no  hope  of  relief 
or  remedy  in  connection  with  the  wrongs  which  had 
driven  them  to  take  the  stand  they  did.  In  place  of  trying 
to  adjust  these  wrongs,  to  soften  the  people's  thoughts, 
to  induce  them  to  reason  with  him,  he  contented  himself 
with  indulging  in  threats.  "  I  warn  you,"  he  foolishly 
said  to  the  Legislature,  "of  the  danger  you  are  in;  the 
violent  measures  adopted  cannot  fail  of  drawing  down 
inevitable  ruin  on  this  flourishing  colony."  His  value  as 
a  statesman  in  a  crisis  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that 
he  was  unable  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  the  American 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  85 

troubles  or  the  extent  of  the  feeling  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people.  "  Three  regiments,  a  proper  detachment  of  artil 
lery,  with  a  couple  of  good  frigates,  some  small  craft,  and 
a  bombketch  would  do  the  whole  business  here  and  go  a 
great  way  to  reduce  Georgia  and  North  Carolina  to  a 
sense  of  their  duty.  Charleston  is  the  fountain  head  from 
whence  all  violence  flows;  stop  that,  and  the  rebellion  in 
this  part  of  the  continent  will  soon  be  at  an  end."  It  was 
not  long  after  writing  this  rigmarole  that  Lord  William 
had  to  take  refuge  on  a  small  British  warship,  "  The 
Tamer,"  and  to  leave  the  affairs  of  his  province  to  be 
managed  by  its  people.  After  a  vain  attempt  to  overawe 
the  Colonists  by  a  show  of  resistance  from  the  water,  he 
passed  from  American  view,  to  reappear  again  about  a 
year  later  in  an  unsuccessful  naval  attack  on  Charleston 
Harbor,  and  in  that  engagement  he  was  mortally  wound 
ed.  Like  most  of  his  race,  he  was  a  brave  man,  but  he 
really  had  little  administrative  ability.  In  the  loyal  quiet 
ness  of  Nova  Scotia  he  did  well  enough,  but  when  he 
became  a  prominent  figure  in  "  the  time  that  tried  men's 
souls,"  he  was  a  distressing  failure.  At  the  moment  he 
assumed  its  government,  South  Carolina,  says  Bancroft, 
"  needed  more  than  ever  a  man  of  prudence  at  the  head 
of  the  administration,  and  its  new  Governor  owed  his 
place  only  to  his  birth." 

New  Jersey  in  the  Colonial  days  was  a  favorite  settling 
place  for  Scotch  refugees,  and,  naturally,  for  Scotch  Gov 
ernors.  Many  of  the  Presbyterian  exiles  sought  the 
liberty  of  conscience  which  was  denied  them  at  home  in 
its  then  wild  but  fruitful  territories,  and  among  the  early 
"  proprietors  "  we  find  the  names  of  many  Scotch  noble 
men  and  official  dignitaries,  and  it  was  after  one  of  them, 
an  Earl  of  Perth,  that  the  once  great  rival  of  New  York, 
Perth  Amboy,  was  named.  The  Quakers,  too,  began  to 
see  in  it  a  place  where  their  doctrines  could  be  lived  up 
to  without  molestation,  and  one  of  the  most  famous  of 
their  number,  Robert  Barclay  of  Ury,  was  appointed 
Governor  of  East  Jersey  in  1682.  Barclay,  author  of  the 
still  classic  "  Apology  for  the  Quakers,"  never  visited 


86  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

his  territory;  but,  nevertheless,  his  influence  in  it  was 
great,  and  while  Quaker  influence  predominated — a 
period  of  about  twenty  years — the  colony  enjoyed  won 
derful  prosperity.  Barclay  appointed  as  his  deputy  Gavin 
Laurie,  a  native  of  Edinburgh,  a  man  of  peace,  who  de 
voted  himself  to  developing  the  resources  of  his  charge, 
and  the  comfort  and  well-being  of  its  people.  He  was  a 
good  ruler,  and  as  much  may  be  said  of  Alexander  Skene, 
another  Quaker  Governor,  a  native  of  Aberdeen. 

Lord  Neil  Campbell,  son  of  the  ninth  Earl  of  Argyll, 
visited  New  Jersey  as  its  Governor  in  1687,  having  pre 
viously  bought,  or  secured  in  some  way,  the  lands  of  Sir 
George  Mackenzie — the  "  Bluidy  Mackenzie  "  of  the 
Covenanters.  Lord  Neil,  however,  stayed  little  longer 
than  to  see  some  of  the  land  over  which  he  was  thus 
nominally  ruler,  and  does  not  appear  to  have  meddled 
with  its  affairs  in  any  way.  His  deputy,  Andrew  Hamil 
ton,  made  up  in  practical  work  for  his  lordship's  quali 
ties  of  nonentity.  Hamilton  was  born  at  Edinburgh  about 
1627,  and  for  a  time  was  a  merchant  in  that  city.  He  was 
sent  to  New  Jersey  as  agent  for  the  Scotch  "  proprietors," 
and  on  Lord  Neil  Campbell's  departure  became  acting 
Governor.  He  was  an  aggressive  sort  of  personage,  and 
his  official  career  was  rather  a  stormy  one,  but  he  did 
good  service  to  the  young  country.  He  was  the  first  to 
organize  a  postal  service  in  the  Colonies,  having  obtained 
a  patent  for  a  postal  scheme  from  the  Crown  in  1694. 
Gov.  Andrew  Hamilton  died  at  Burlington,  New  Jersey, 
in  1703.  His  son  John,  who  died  at  Perth  Amboy  in  1746, 
was  also  for  a  time  acting  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  and 
his  grandson,  James,  was  the  first  native-born  Governor 
of  Pennsylvania. 

Another  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  of  Scotch  descent 
was  Thomas  McKean,  who  entered  public  life  as  a 
Deputy  Attorney  General  in  1756,  and  retired  in  1808, 
having  in  the  intervening  years  held  almost  every  office 
in  the  gift  of  the  people,  in  State  Legislature,  in  Con 
gress,  in  the  field  as  a  soldier,  on  the  bench  as  Chief  Jus 
tice  of  Pennsylvania  for  twenty  years,  and  as  Governor  of 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  87 

the  State  for  nine  years.  He  enjoyed  a  rare  record  for 
a  career  of  usefulness,  in  the  course  of  which  he  exhib 
ited  the  highest  qualities  of  an  orator,  a  jurist,  and  an 
executive.  He  was  proud  of  his  descent  from  Scotch  for 
bears,  and  showed  his  pride  publicly  in  1792,  when  he 
joined  the  ranks  of  the  Philadelphia  St.  Andrew's  Society. 

The  most  notable  of  the  Scotch  Governors  of  Penn 
sylvania,  however,  was  Sir  William  Keith,  who  was  born 
at  Peterhead  in  1680,  and  was  the  son  of  Sir  William 
Keith.  He  was  Governor  from  1717  till  1726,  but  left  be 
hind  him  a  record  for  vanity,  intrigue  and  misgovernment, 
all  of  which,  however,  occupies  so  large  a  space  in  the 
early  history  of  Pennsylvania  as  not  to  need  recital  here. 
Keith  was  a  man  of  the  world.  He  lived  for  self  and 
his  life  was  a  failure,  for  he  died  in  London  in  1749,  while 
a  prisoner  for  debt,  in  the  Old  Bailey. 

New  York  hatl  its  full  quota  of  Scottish  Governors. 
The  first  of  them  in  point  of  time,  and  in  many  ways  the 
most  distinguished,  was  Major  Gen.  Robert  Hunter, 
grandson  of  Patrick  Hunter,  of  Hunterston,  Ayrshire,  the 
head  of  an  ancient  family.  Robert  Hunter  was  born  at 
Hunterston  and  commenced  life  as  a  soldier.  In  1707 
he  was  commissioned  Governor  of  Virginia  and  started 
out  to  take  possession  of  his  political  prize,  but  on  the 
voyage  the  ship  in  which  he  was  a  passenger  was  capt 
ured  by  a  French  vessel,  and  the  budding  Governor  was 
carried  to  Paris,  a  prisoner  of  war.  He  never  saw  Vir 
ginia,  and  his  appointment  to  the  high  office  of  its  chief 
Executive  has  been  doubted,  but  his  commission  is  still 
extant  and  carefully  preserved  among  the  curiosities  of 
the  Historical  Society  of  Virginia 

Gen.  Hunter's  real  American  experience  commenced 
in  June,  1710,  \vhen  he  entered  upon  his  duties  as  Gover 
nor  of  New  York.  He  accepted  the  appointment  with 
the  primal  view  of  adding  to  his  fortune,  but  he  had  a 
conscience  that  prevented  him  from  seeking  to  increase 
his  wealth  by  means  which  were  in  direct  variance  to  the 
welfare  of  the  community  among  whom  his  lot  was  cast. 
After  being  about  a  year  in  his  office  he  saw  that  the  de- 


88  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

velopment  of  the  colony  could  only  be  hastened  by  add 
ing*  to  its  population  by  means  of  immigration,  and,  hav 
ing  conceived  a  scheme  about  the  manufacture  of  naval 
stores  by  which  he  might  enrich  himself,  he  proceeded  to 
develop  the  resources  of  the  country  and  increase  his 
own  wealth  by  the  introduction  of  some  3,000  German 
laborers  from  the  Palatinate.  These  people  were  settled 
on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  River,  mainly  on  lands  be 
longing  to  the  Livingstons,  and  were  to  produce  tar  and 
turpentine.  Their  passage  money  was  to  be  repaid  out  of 
their  earnings,  and  on  the  same  terms  they  were  to  be 
supplied  at  first  with  the  necessaries  of  life.  As  might  be 
expected,  the  scheme  was  a  failure.  The  immigrants  were 
virtually  contract  slaves  and  were  soon  so  dissatisfied 
with  their  lot  that  they  refused  to  work,  and,  when  he 
washed  his  hands  of  the  affair  and  left  the  immigrants 
to  shift  for  themselves,  the  Governor  was  crippled  finan 
cially  very  seriously.  His  greatest  claim  to  remembrance 
is  his  establishing  of  a  complete  Court  of  Chancery  in 
the  colony,  and,  although  he  doubtless  saw  in  such  a 
court  a  rich  harvest  of  fees  and  opportunities  for  patron 
age,  the  good  accomplished  by  a  tribunal  of  that  descrip 
tion,  especially  in  a  developing  colony,  where  new  and 
intricate  questions  were  daily  demanding  decisions — de 
cisions  which  were  for  all  time  to  rank  as  precedents — 
should  not  be  ignored.  In  many  ways  Gov.  Hunter  was 
a  model  ruler.  In  questions  of  religion  he  was  extremely 
tolerant,  and  he  believed  in  every  man  being  permitted  to 
worship  as  he  thought  best.  He  indulged  in  no  wildcat 
schemes  and  encouraged  no  extravagant  outlay  of  public 
money.  He  understood  the  art  of  managing  men  and 
was  on  equally  good  terms  with  all  the  parties  in  the  col 
ony.  Very  popular  he  was  not,  and  never  could  be,  for  he 
represented  a  sovereign  power  in  the  person  of  the  King, 
while  all  round  him  in  New  York  was  developing  the 
theory  that  the  source  of  all  power,  even  the  power  to 
name  Governors  and  Judges,  should  be  the  people  con 
cerned.  Still  he  preserved  intact  the  supremacy  of  his 
royal  master  and  maintained  peace  or  harmony  in  the 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  89 

colony,  although  he  foresaw  very  clearly  that  a  struggle 
between  the  two  was  certain  sooner  or  later.  "  The  Colo 
nies  are  infants  at  their  mother's  breast,"  he  wrote  to 
Lord  Bolingbroke,  then  British  Secretary  of  State  for 
Foreign  Affairs,  "  but  such  as  will  wean  themselves  when 
they  become  of  age." 

When  Gov.  Hunter  retired  from  the  Colony,  in  1719, 
the  Assembly  gave  him  an  address  in  which  they  lauded 
his  administration  of  affairs  and  expressed  the  opinion 
that  he  had  "  governed  well  and  wisely,  like  a  prudent 
magistrate;  like  an  affectionate  parent."  This  praise  seems 
to  have  been  thoroughly  well  deserved,  and  even  Amer 
ican  writers  acknowledge  that  his  official  record  was  not 
only  an  able,  but  a  clean  one.  He  was  possessed  of  more 
than  ordinary  talent,  was  a  warm  friend  of  such  men  as 
Addison,  St.  John,  Steele,  Shaftesbury,  and  especially  of 
Dean  Swift,  who  appears  to  have  entertained  for  him  as 
undoubted  sentiments  of  respect  and  friendship  as  he  en 
tertained  for  any  man.  "  Hunter,"  wrote  John  Forster, 
in  his  unfinished  life  of  the  great  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's, 
"  was  among  the  most  scholarly  and  entertaining  of  his 
(Swift's)  correspondents;  some  of  Swift's  own  best  letters 
were  written  to  this  friend,  and  the  judgment  he  had 
formed  of  him  may  be  taken  from  the  fact  that  when  all 
the  world  was  giving  to  himself  the  authorship  of  Shaftes 
bury 's  anonymously  printed  '  Letter  on  Enthusiasm,' 
Swift  believed  Hunter  to  have  written  it." 

Gov.  Hunter  married  the  widow  of  an  old  companion 
in  arms  in  the  Marlborough  campaigns,  Lord  John  Hay, 
son  of  the  second  Marquis  of  Tweeddale,  and  Colonel  of 
the  Scots  Greys.  She  was  the  daughter  and  heiress  of  Sir 
Thomas  Orby,  a  Lincolnshire  Baronet,  and  brought  him 
considerable  wealth.  He,  however,  continued  in  official 
harness  to  the  last  and  died  at  Jamaica  in  1734,  while 
holding  the  post  of  Governor  of  that  island,  one  of  the 
plums  of  the  then  colonial  service. 

Gov.  Hunter's  successor  in  New  York  was  also  a 
Scotsman — William  Burnet.  This  amiable  man  was  the 
son  of  the  famous  Bishop  Burnet,  and  grandson  of  Rob- 


90  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

ert  Burnet  of  Crimond,  one  of  the  Scotch  Lords  of  Ses 
sion.  William  Burnet  was  educated  at  Cambridge  and 
admitted  to  the  practice  of  the  law.  He  appears  to  have 
been  fairly  successful,  but  lost  all  his  means  in  the  South 
Sea  bubble,  and,  finding  himself  ruined,  looked  around 
so  that  he  might  use  his  great  family  influence  to  secure 
for  him  a  colonial  appointment.  His  success  was  quick, 
and  in  September,  1720,  he  found  himself  in  New  York 
as  its  Governor.  His  administration  was  as  able  and  as 
honest  as  that  of  his  predecessor,  and  he  made  himself 
immensely  popular  by  his  prohibition  of  trade  between 
the  Indians  of  New  York  and  the  merchants  in  Canada, 
and  he  even  built  a  fort  at  his  personal  expense  to  help 
in  protecting  the  trade  of  the  colony  over  which  he  ruled. 
The  Home  Government,  however,  refused  to  indorse 
Burnet's  course  in  this  instance,  but  that  only  added  to 
his  personal  popularity.  He  lost  it  all,  however,  by  the 
policy  he  adopted  toward  the  Court  of  Chancery.  Briefly 
stated,  he  wanted  to  make  that  body  independent  of  pub 
lic  sentiment  and  above  public  interference,  while  Colonial 
sentiment  was  that  all  Judges  and  all  courts  should  be 
subject  to  the  control  of  the  people,  either  directly  or 
through  their  elected  representatives.  Things  reached 
such  a  pass  that  the  Assembly  threatened  to  declare  all 
acts  and  decrees  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  as  null  and 
void,  and  reduced  all  its  fees  as  a  preliminary  step  in  that 
direction.  The  crisis  between  the  Governor  and  the  peo 
ple  was  ended,  greatly  to  the  former's  relief,  in  1728, 
when  he  was  transferred  to  the  Governorship  of  Massa 
chusetts.  He  had  not  much  time  to  make  a  name  for  him 
self  there,  for  he  died  at  Boston  in  1729. 

Another  Scotsman,  John  Montgomerie,  was  sworn  in 
as  Burnet's  successor  in  the  New  York  Governorship  on 
April  15,  1728.  He  was  a  scion  of  the  noble  house  of 
Eglinton,  being  the  son  of  Francis  Montgomerie  of 
Giffen,  who  was  a  son  of  Alexander,  sixth  Earl  of  Eglin 
ton.  John  Montgomerie  was  an  officer  in  the  Guards  and 
was  a  member  of  Parliament  from  1710  to  1722.  He  occu 
pied  a  high  position  in  society  and  married  a  daughter  of 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  9^ 

the  Earl  of  Hyndford;  but  his  habits  were  erratic,  his 
tastes  extravagant,  and  he  became  inextricably  involved 
in  debt.  His  ancestral  estate  had  to  be  sold  and  he  was 
glad  to  accept  a  minor  post  at  the  Court  of  George  I. — 
the  '  wee,  wee,  German  lairdie."  It  was  in  the  hope  of 
benefiting  his  fortunes  that  he  secured  the  appointment 
as  the  royal  representative  in  New  York,  but  his  useful 
ness  was  gone.  His  service  as  Governor  was  not  marked 
by  any  matter  of  importance.  He  seemed  to  be  in  weak 
health  from  the  day  he  landed,  and  he  died  July  31,  I/31- 
If,  however,  Gov.  Montgomerie  occupies  but  a  small 
share  in  the  historical  annals  of  the  colony,  Gov.  Golden, 
the  last  of  the  Scottish  Governors,  or  British  Governors, 
whose  executive  rights  were  recognized  by  the  people, 
had  a  very  important  position  in  public  affairs  for  the 
fifteen  years  preceding  the  Revolution.  Cadwallader  Col- 
den  was  born  at  Dunse  in  1688.  His  father,  the  Rev.  Al 
exander  Golden,  was  minister  of  Dunse,  and  Cadwallader 
was  educated  at  Edinburgh  University,  with  the  view  of 
entering  the  ministry.  His  own  inclination,  however,  led 
him  to  study  medicine,  and  he  appears  to  have  practiced 
that  profession  in  London.  In  1710  he  crossed  the  sea 
to  Philadelphia.  His  stay  there  was  comparatively  short, 
for  we  find  him  again  in  London  in  1715,  when  he  moved 
in  the  highest  intellectual  and  literarv  circles.  In  1716  he 
returned  to  Scotland  and  married  a  Kelso  girl,  the  daugh 
ter  of  a  minister,  and  soon  after  left  his  native  land  again 
for  America.  After  practicing  medicine  for  a  time  in 
Philadelphia,  he  visited  New  York  and  won  the  friend 
ship  of  Gov.  Hunter,  who  invited  him  to  settle  in  the  ter 
ritory  under  his  jurisdiction.  This  he  agreed  to,  mainly 
because  Hunter  backed  up  his  professions  of  friendship 
by  the  more  tangible  offer  of  the  position  of  Surveyor 
General  of  the  Colony.  Two  years  later  Golden  had  so 
fortified  his  position  with  the  ruling  powers  that  he  ob 
tained  a  grant  of  2,000  acres  of  land  in  Orange  County 
and  there  built  a  country  home  for  himself  and  founded 
a  village,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Coldenham, 
which  it  still  retains.  His  influence  was  increased  after  he 


92  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

was  appointed,  in  1722,  a  member  of  His  Majesty's  Pro-| 
vtncial  Council,  when  Gov.  Burnet  had  commenced  his.; 
rule,  and  he  became  that  personage's  most  trusted  coun-i 
seller.  After  Burnet  went  to  Boston,  Golden  retired  to. 
Coldenham,  and  there  interested  himself  in  those  literary 
and  scientific  pursuits  which  gave  him  a  prominent  posi 
tion  in  contemporary  learned  circles.  He  had  a  wide 
correspondence  with  scientists  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlan 
tic,  and  to  a  suggestion  in  one  of  his  letters  was  due  the 
formation  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  of  Phil 
adelphia.  As  a  member  of  Council,  however,  Golden 
stHl  continued  to  be  active  in  the  politics  of  the  province, 
and,  as  usual,  came  in  for  a  full  share  of  popular  and 
official  criticism  and  abuse.  In  1760,  as  senior  member 
of  Council,  he  was  called  upon  to  administer  the  Govern 
ment  on  the  sudden  death  of  Gov.  De  Lancey.  There 
after,  with  a  few  interruptions,  he  served  as  Lieutenant 
Governor  until  June  25,  1775,  when  the  progress  of  the 
Revolution  laid  him  on  the  shelf  by  wiping  out  the  royal 
office.  Had  Golden  thrown  in  his  lot  with  the  Revolu 
tionists,  he  might  have  attained  a  high  place  in  the  affec 
tions  of  the  leaders  of  the  successful  side,  but  he  remained 
steadfast  in  his  loyalty  and  to  the  official  oaths  he  had 
taken  to  be  faithful  to  the  Home  Government,  and  while 
his  sympathies  were  always  with  the  people  and  his  views 
were  decidedly  against  unwarranted  State  interference 
and  against  taxation  without  representation,  he  was  too 
old  to  renounce  tys  allegiance,  too  near  the  end  of  his  pil 
grimage  to  change  his  flag.  Besides,  he  was  of  the  opin 
ion  that  all  the  evils  which  led  to  the  Revolution  could  be 
amended  by  united  and  firm  representation  to  the  sov 
ereign  and  his  immediate  advisers,  and  that,  therefore, 
open  rebellion  was  needless.  So  when  the  crash  finally 
came,  and  his  proclamations,  promises,  explanations, 
diplomacy,  and  entreaties  proved  unavailing,  the  old 
Governor  retired  to  a  farm  near  Flushing,  L.  I.,  and  died 
of  a  broken  heart  a  few  months  later,  in  September,  1776, 
when  in  the  eighty-eighth  year  of  his  age.  After  the  bit 
terness  of  the  contemporary  struggle  had  passed  away, 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  93 

the  public  services  and  brilliant  talents  of  this  most  ac 
complished  of  all  New  York's  royal  Governors  was  more 
apparent  than  at  the  time  when  he  was  an  actor  in  the 
drama  of  history,  and  his  loyal  devotion  to  the  duties  of 
his  high  office  became  fully  acknowledged  on  all  sides. 
"  Posterity,"  wrote  Dr.  O'Callaghan  in  his  "  Document 
ary  History  of  the  State  of  New  York,"  in  summing  up 
the  life  work  of  Golden,  "  will  not  fail  to  accord  justice  to 
the  character  and  memory  of  a  man  to  whom  this  country 
is  most  deeply  indebted  for  much  of  its  science  and  for 
many  of  its  most  important  institutions,  and  of  whom  the 
State  of  New  York  may  well  be  proud."  And  H.  G.  Ver- 
planck  said:  "For  the  great  variety  and  extent  of 
his  learning,  his  unwearied  research,  his  talents,  and  the 
public  sphere  in  which  he  lived,  Gadwallader  Golden  may 
justly  be  placed  in  a  high  rank  among  the  most  dis 
tinguished  men  of  his  time."  The  grandson  of  Governor 
Golden  was  Mayor  of  New  York  from  1818  to  1821,  and 
in  that  office  had  an  enviable  record. 

For  a  brief  period,  in  1780,  James  Robertson  was  the 
nominal  Governor  of  New  York.  He  was  born  in  Scot 
land  in  1710,  and  was  a  soldier  by  profession.  His  record 
in  America,  while  he  held  office  under  his  commission  as 
Governor,  is  not,  it  must  be  confessed,  a  creditable  one, 
and  we  may  dismiss  him  with  the  statement  that  his  office 
as  Governor  was  merely  a  titular  one,  and  he  never  as 
sumed  legislative  functions.  He  was  a  soldier  pure 
and  simple,  and,  had  the  Revolutionists  been  defeated, 
might  have  swayed  executive  power.  But  the  crisis  was 
virtually  passed  when  he  came  upon  the  scene,  and  we 
need  not  follow  his  doings  further  than  to  say  that  he 
returned  to  Britain  in  safety  from  the  conflict  and  died  in 
England  in  1788. 

After  the  Revolution,  the  history  of  the  United  States 
presents  us  with  several  instances  of  Scotsmen  holding 
the  office  of  Governor  in  one  of  the  confederated  Com 
monwealths.  Among  the  earliest  of  these  was  Edward 
Telfair,  who  was  for  several  years  (1786,  1790-3)  Gov 
ernor  of  Georgia.  He  was  born  in  the  Stewartry  of 


94  THE     SCOT    IN    AMERICA. 

Kirkcudbright,  in  1735,  and  educated  at  the  Kirkcud 
bright  Grammar  School.  He  left  Scotland  in  1758,  to 
become  agent  in  America  for  a  commercial  house,  and, 
after  residing  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  removed, 
in  1766,  to  Savannah,  Ga.,  where  he  engaged  in  busi 
ness.  When  the  Revolutionary  troubles  commenced,  he 
heartily  espoused  the  American  side,  and  became  known 
locally  as  an  ardent  advocate  of  liberty.  He  was  elected 
in  1778  a  delegate  to  the  Continental  Congress,  and 
served  in  that  capacity  also  from  1780  to  1783.  In  the 
latter  year  he  was  appointed  a  Commissioner  to  treat 
with  the  Cherokees,  then,  as  before,  and  long  after,  a 
troublesome  problem  in  Georgia.  Telfair  was  regarded 
as  the  foremost  citizen  of  his  adopted  State,  and  his 
death,  at  Savannah,  in  1807,  was  deeply  mourned,  not 
only  in  that  Commonwealth,  but  by  all  throughout  the 
country  who  had  taken  any  part  in  the  struggle  which 
gave  the  Stars  and  Stripes  a  place  among  the  flags  of  the 
nations.  His  son,  Thomas,  who  graduated  at  Princeton 
in  1805;  gave  promise  of  a  brilliant  career.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  from  1813  to 
1817,  and  but  for  his  untimely  death,  in  1818,  would 
doubtless  have  attained  higher  honors  in  his  State  and 
in  the  nation. 

A  good  example  of  the  later  Governors  is  found  in  W. 
E.  Smith,  who  in  1877  and  in  1879  was  elected  to  the 
Executive  Chair  of  Wisconsin  by  large  popular  votes. 
Mr.  Smith  was  taken  to  America  when  a  boy,  and  his 
earlier  years  were  spent  in  the  States  of  New  York  and 
Michigan.  Finally,  he  settled  at  Fox  Lake,  Wis.,  where 
he  engaged  in  business  and  acquired  considerable  means. 
In  1851  he  served  his  first  term  as  a  member  of  the  State 
Legislature,  and  was  Speaker  of  that  body  in  1871.  On 
retiring  from  public  life,  Governor  Smith  devoted  him 
self  to  religious  and  philanthropic  enterprises.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church,  and  took  a  keen  in 
terest  in  its  progress,  and  in  all  movements  for  the  relief 
of  misery  or  for  improving  the  moral  tone  of  the  com 
munity  in  which  he  was  recognized  as  a  leader.  Governor 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  9 

Beveridge  of  Illinois,  Governor  Moonlight  of  Kansas, 
and  Governor  Ross  of  New  Mexico,  are  among  the 
other  Governors  the  Scottish  race  has  furnished  to 
American  Commonwealths. 

Turning  to  the  history  of  Canada,  we  find  that  one  of 
its  earliest  rulers  was  Samuel  Veitch,  who  was  Governor 
of  Nova  Scotia,  and  had  in  many  respects  the  career  of  a 
typical  Scot  abroad.  He  was  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1668, 
and  was  the  son  of  a  noted  Presbyterian  minister.  After 
studying  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  he  passed  over 
to  Holland  and  entered  the  College  of  Utrecht.  Al 
though  a  clerical  career  had  been  proposed  for  him,  his 
inclinations  were  for  the  army,  and  he  attached  himself  to 
the  Court  of  William  of  Orange,  and  accompanied  that 
Prince  to  England  in  1688.  Veitch  afterward  served  with 
much  distinction  with  the  army  in  Flanders,  rose  to  the 
rank  of  Colonel,  and  returned  to  England  after  the  peace 
of  Ryswick,  in  1697.  He  next  attempted  to  become  a 
money-maker,  and  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  Darien 
scheme,  one  of  the  causes  of  much  ill-feeling  against 
the  administration  of  King  William  in  Scotland.  He 
was  one  of  the  Councillors  of  the  Darien  Colony  of  Cale 
donia.  He  proceeded  to  Darien  in  1698,  and  when  the 
colony  was  wiped  out  by  the  Spaniards  he  made  his  way 
to  the  North,  and  settled  at  Albany,  where  he  engaged  in 
trading  with  the  Indians,  and  seems  to  have  been  fairly 
successful,  for  in  1700  he  married  Margaret,  daughter  of 
Robert  Livingston.  For  several  years  his  most  notable 
employment  was  connected  with  schemes  to  forcibly 
wrest  Canada  from  the  hands  of  the  French.  In  1710, 
in  the  course  of  hostilities,  he  was  appointed  Governor 
of  Nova  Scotia,  and  held  the  office  for  three  years.  His 
duties,  however,  were  military  rather  than  civil,  and  it 
seems  a  pity,  for  the  sake  of  his  personal  comfort  and 
fortunes,  that  he  ever  saw  the  province.  In  1713  he  was 
removed  from  his  office,  was  soon  after  reappointed  to  it, 
and  again  was  removed  without  ceremony.  Then  he 
went  to  Boston  and  petitioned  the  crown  for  a  place  or  a 
pension,  but  without  meeting  with  any  success;  nor  were 


96  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

his  petitions  to  the  Department  of  State  any  more  fortu 
nate.  He  went  to  England  to  push  his  claims  in  person, 
but  failed  to  receive  either  recognition  or  recompense 
for  his  services  and  losses,  and  he  died  in  London  in 
1732,  a  sadly  disappointed  and  broken  man.  He  pos 
sessed  great  ability,  was  active  and  conscientious  in  all 
the  duties  which  fell  to  him,  but  he  was  of  a  stern  and 
unyielding  disposition,  strong  in  his  prejudices  and  ut 
terly  unfitted  by  a  want  of  suavity  in  his  manner  for 
making  himself  popular  either  with  the  people  or  the 
Court. 

James  Murray,  fifth  son  of  the  fourth  Lord  Elibank, 
who  from  1763  to  1767  was  Governor  General  of  Canada, 
occupies  a  prominent  place  in  the  military  and  political 
history  of  the  Dominion.  Beginning  life  as  a  soldier, 
he  early  saw  service  on  the  Continent  of  Europe.  He 
took  part  in  Wolfe's  expedition  to  Quebec.  He  com 
manded  a  brigade  at  the  battle  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham, 
and  after  Quebec  had  fallen  and  Wolfe  had  "  died  victori 
ous  "  the  command  of  the  city  and  its  forces  devolved 
upon  him.  He  at  once  put  the  place  in  order  to  meet  any 
attack  which  might  be  made  upon  it.  All  through  the 
Winter  of  1759-60  he  continued  his  preparations,  and 
early  in  Spring  found  his  charge  invested  by  a  French 
force  of  12,000  men,  under  De  Levis,  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  of  French  Generals,  while  his  own  available 
force  was  barely  3,000.  He  offered  De  Levis  battle,  and 
in  the  "  second  engagement  of  Quebec,"  as  it  has  been 
called,  although  he  lost  his  guns  and  did  not  break  the 
investing  lines,  he  only  suffered  a  loss  of  300  men,  while 
the  enemy  owned  up  to  1,800.  This  sally,  brilliant  as  it 
was,  severely  crippled  his  resources,  and  he  had  a  hard, 
ceaseless,  and  ever-perplexing  struggle  to  keep  the  en 
emy  out  of  Quebec.  In  spite  of  the  great  odds  against 
him,  he  maintained  his  position  with  brilliant  success. 
But  the  struggle  was  a  terrible  one  until  the  strain  was 
relieved  when  the  news  came  that  aid  had  landed  in  Can 
ada  from  Great  Britain,  and  the  French  forces  retreated 
from  before  the  city.  Had  Quebec  fallen  into  the  hands 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  97 

of  the  French  that  Winter  the  British  would  have  lost 
Canada,  for  the  time  at  least.  When  all  danger  was  past, 
Murray  went  to  Montreal  and  there  joined  Lord  Am- 
herst,  and  with  the  capitulation  soon  after  of  that  city  the 
French  struggle  for  the  retention  of  Canada  ceased,  and 
it  became  "  one  of  the  fairest  gems  in  the  British  crown," 
as  some  one  has  truthfully  described  it. 

As  Governor  General,  to  which  post  he  was  almost 
immediately  appointed,  General  Murray  made  a  brilliant 
record.  Mr.  Henry  J.  Morgan,  in  his  "  Sketches  of  Cel 
ebrated  Canadians,"  says:  "  During  his  administration 
the  form  of  government  and  the  laws  to  be  observed  in 
the  new  colony  were  promulgated;  the  many  evils  that 
arose  therefrom  caused  much  dissatisfaction  among  the 
French  people,  and  Governor  Murray  did  all  in  his  power 
to  alleviate  the  discontented  feeling,  but  with  only  partial 
success.  Nevertheless,  he  won  the  good  will  and  esteem 
of  the  whole  French  race  in  Canada,  and  lost  that  of  a 
part  of  his  countrymen  because  he  would  not  conform  to 
their  prejudices  against  the  poor  natives  and  those  of 
French  origin."  On  leaving  Canada,  he  served  in  the 
army  with  his  accustomed  brilliancy  in  other  parts  of  the 
world,  and  refused  on  one  occasion  a  bribe  of  one  million 
pounds  sterling  to  surrender  Minorca.  He  died  in  1794 
and  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey,  where  rest  the 
remains  of  so  many  brilliant  Scotsmen  whose  abilities 
made  them  famous  in  all  walks  of  life. 

Another  military  Governor  of  Canada  who  won  a  brill 
iant  record  for  his  administrative  qualities  was  General 
Peter  Hunter,  a  brother  of  the  celebrated  founder  of  the 
Hunterian  Museum  at  Glasgow.  He  was  descended 
from  the  same  family  as  Governor  Hunter  of  New  York, 
and  was  born  at  Long  Calderwood,  Lanarkshire,  in  1746. 
Choosing  the  military  profession,  he  soon  rose  steadily 
and  acquitted  himself  with  credit  in  many  hard  fought 
campaigns.  When  appointed  Governor  of  Upper  Canada 
and  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  Forces,  in  1799,  he  had 
attained  the  rank  of  Lieutenant  General,  and  his  appoint 
ment  is  an  evidence  of  the  confidence  felt  in  his  military 


98  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

and  administrative  qualities  by  the  British  authorities,  for 
the  time  was  one  of  the  most  critical  in  the  history  of 
Canada,  and  the  services  of  a  diplomat  were  needed  as 
much  as  those  of  a  soldier.  Governor  Hunter's  course 
in  Canada  fully  justified  the  confidence  of  the  appointing 
power.  He  ruled  wisely  and  well,  instituted  many  im 
provements  in  all  branches  of  the  Government,  and  was 
equally  watchful  over  the  contemporary  prosperity  and 
the  opportunities  for  future  development  of  the  country. 
But,  while  constantly  reforming-  the  details  of  government 
and  formulating  laws  and  orders  which  were  designed  to 
benefit  the  country  then  and  thereafter,  and  which  seem 
to  have  been  understood  and  appreciated  by  the  people, 
Governor  Hunter  kept  a  close  watch  on  the  defenses  and 
the  military  resources  of  his  province,  and  it  was  while 
on  a  tour  of  inspection  of  the  outposts  of  Canada  that  he 
died,  at  Quebec,  in  1805.  His  career  was  in  every  way 
an  honorable  one  to  himself  and  his  country,  and  the 
words  on  the  memorial  erected  in  the  English  Cathedral 
at  Quebec  by  his  brother,  Dr.  John  Hunter,  the  famous 
anatomist,  are  as  truthful  as  they  are  fitting:  "  His  life 
was  spent  in  the  service  of  his  King  and  country.  Of 
the  various  stations,  both  civil  and  military,  which  he 
filled,  he  discharged  the  duties  with  spotless  integrity,  un 
wearied  zeal,  and  successful  abilities." 

A  volume  might  be  written  about  the  incidents  in  the 
career  of  Sir  James  H.  Craig,  the  last  of  the  family  of 
Craig  of  Dalnair,  near  Edinburgh,  who  became  Gov 
ernor  of  Canada  in  1807.  He  was  born  in  1750  at  Gib 
raltar,  where  his  father  held  an  appointment  as  Judge. 
Entering  the  army  in  1763,  he  received  his  military  train 
ing  in  Gibraltar.  He  was  present  at  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill,  and  thereafter  took  part  in  most  of  the  American 
campaigns.  In  1794,  with  the  rank  of  Major  General, 
he  \vent  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  was  instrumental  in 
bringing  that  settlement  under  British  rule,  and  was  ap 
pointed  its  Governor.  Thereafter  he  served  for  several 
years  with  distinction  in  India,  and,  as  Lieutenant  Gen 
eral,  had  command  of  the  troops  in  the  Mediterranean  in 


COLONIAL     GOVERNORS.  99 

1805.  Illness  compelled  him  to  retire  from  active  service, 
but  a  short  interval  of  rest  seemed  to  recuperate  him  so 
much  that  he  accepted  the  Governorship  of  Canada.  His 
life  there  was  not  an  enviable  one.  His  constitution  was 
broken  and  he  suffered  terribly  from  dropsy  and  a  com 
plication  of  diseases.  The  country  was  unsettled,  the 
French  and  British  did  not  get  along  harmoniously  to 
gether,  and  Craig  made  a  few  serious  errors — errors 
which  brought  upon  him  much  savage  abuse.  But  he 
meant  well,  his  honesty  and  patriotism  were  unimpeach 
able,  and  he  strove  earnestly  to  benefit  the  country  over 
which  he  ruled.  Probably  had  he  been  in  perfect  health, 
had  sedition  been  less  ripe,  had  party  spirit  less  blinded 
the  people  to  his  purpose,  he  might  have  succeeded  bet 
ter  than  he  did.  They  called  him  an  oppressor,  and  in 
connection  with  that  charge,  directly  made,  he  issued  the 
following  pathetic  statement:  "  For  what  should  I  op 
press  you?  Is  it  from  ambition?  What  can  you  give  me? 
Is  it  for  power?  Alas,  my  good  friends,  with  life  ebb 
ing  not  slowly  to  its  period  under  the  pressure  of  diseases 
acquired  in  the  service  of  my  country,  I  look  only  to 
pass  what  it  may  please  God  to  suffer  to  remain  of  it  in 
the  comfort  of  retirement  among  my  friends.  I  remain 
among  you  only  in  obedience  to  the  commands  of  my 
King.  What  power  can  I  wish  for?  Is  it  then  for  wealth 
I  would  oppress  you?  Inquire  of  those  who  know  me 
whether  I  regard  wealth.  I  never  did  when  I  could  enjoy 
it;  it  is  now  of  no  use  to  me.  To  the  value  of  your  coun 
try  laid  at  my  feet  I  would  prefer  the  consciousness  of 
having,  in  a  single  instance,  contributed  to  your  happi 
ness  and  prosperity."  Such  a  man  could  not  remain  long 
misunderstood,  and  though  in  some  quarters  the  wrang 
ling  and  criticism  prevailed  while  he  continued  at  the 
head  of  affairs,  (and  indeed  long  after,)  the  true  senti 
ments  of  the  people  forced  themselves  to  the  front  when 
it  was  announced  that  he  was  about  to  relinquish  his  post 
and  leave  the  country.  Addresses  of  regret  were  sent  to 
him  from  all  quarters,  and  on  the  way  to  the  vessel  that 
was  to  carry  him  across  the  Atlantic  a  throng  took  the 


100  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

horses  from  his  carriage  and  pulled  it  to  the  wharf.  In  the 
"  History  of  Canada,"  by  Robert  Christie,  is  the  follow 
ing  mention  of  Governor  Craig,  which,  so  far  as  it  goes, 
seems  a  truthful  tribute  to  some  of  the  excellencies  of  his 
character:  "  Although  hasty  in  temper,  he  was,  like  most 
men  who  are  so,  far  from  implacable,  and  as  we  have 
seen,  easily  reconciled  to  those  who  may  have  incurred 
his  displeasure.  Hospitable  and  princely  in  his  style  of 
living,  he  was  also  munificent  in  his  donations  to  public 
institutions,  and  to  charitable  purposes  a  generous  pa 
tron;  and,  lastly,  we  shall  mention,  though  not  the  least 
of  his  virtues,  a  friend  to  the  poor  and  destitute,  none  of 
whom  applying  at  his  door  ever  went  away  unrelieved." 
In  one  respect,  Governor  Craig  was  far  ahead  of  his 
contemporaries.  That  was  in  connection  with  the  land 
question.  He  had  no  faith  in  the  policy  which  handed 
over  thousands  of  the  most  fruitful  acres  in  Canada  to  ad 
venturers  who  applied  for  them,  to  favorites  who  believed 
themselves  entitled  to  such  gifts,  or  to  land  speculators 
who  grasped  what  they  could,  and  then  made  fortunes 
by  selling  their  gifts  of  territory.  In  1808,  as  we  learn 
from  one  report,  179,786  acres  were  u  granted  "  in  Upper 
Canada;  in  1809,  105,624;  in  1810,  104,537;  and  in  1811, 
115,586;  while  in  Lower  Canada  the  liberality  of  the 
Government  was  equally  marked.  Governor  Craig  pro 
tested  on  every  opportunity  against  this  purposeless  prod 
igality,  and  gave  the  home  authorities  at  least  one  very 
good  object  lesson  illustrative  of  its  result.  A  new  bar 
racks  and  a  military  hospital  were  needed  in  1811  for 
Quebec,  but  no  site  was  available  for  their  construction. 
The  Government  had  by  that  time  actually  granted  away 
every  vacant  piece  of  ground  within  the  walls,  and  the 
Governor  could  only  recommend  the  purchase  of  a  site. 
In  doing  so,  however,  he  did  not  refrain  from  pointing 
out  the  folly  of  the  whole  principle  of  miscellaneous  and 
indiscriminate  awarding  of  the  public  lands.  To  actual 
settlers  he  did  not  begrudge  an  acre,  but  to  no  others 
would  he  have  given  a  single  foot.  Governor  Craig  died 
in  England,  in  1812,  a  year  after  he  left  Canada. 


101 


Sir  James  Kempt,  a  native  of  Edinburgh,  was  another 
noted  soldier-Governor  of  Canada.  He  fought  under  Sir 
Ralph  Abercrombie  in  Egypt,  under  Sir  James  H.  Craig 
in  the  Mediterranean,  under  Wellington  in  the  Peninsula 
and  at  Waterloo,  and  received  many  royal  honors  from 
his  own  and  the  allied  sovereigns.  In  1820  he  succeeded 
Lord  Dalhousie  as  Governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  eight 
years  later  followed  the  same  nobleman  in  the  Governor 
ship  of  Canada.  His  administration  was  an  admirable 
one,  and  has  been  commended  on  all  sides.  He  found 
the  country  on  the  verge  of  rebellion,  and  he  quelled, 
gently  and  without  force,  all  traces  of  discontent,  so  that 
when  he  retired  he  left  it  enjoying  the  blessings  of  as 
sured  peace  and  carried  with  him  affectionate  addresses 
from  all  sorts  of  public  bodies.  His  death  took  place  at 
London  in  1855. 

A  very  different  type  of  Canadian  Governor  may  be 
studied  in  the  comparatively  quiet,  but  none  the  less  use 
ful  careers  of  such  men  as  Miles  Macdonnel  —  a  native  of 
Inverness,  who  was  born  there  in  1767,  was  Lord  Sel 
kirk's  right-hand  man  in  the  Red  River  Valley  Settle 
ment,  became  Governor  of  Assiniboia.  and  died  at  Port 
Fortune,  on  the  Ottawa  River,  in  1828  —  and  of  the  bulk, 
in  fact,  of  the  Lieutenant  Governors  of  the  different 
Provinces  and  territories,  before  and  after  Confederation. 
Such  names,  too,  as  Lord  Dalhousie,  Lord  Elgin,  and 
Lord  Lome,  are  indissolubly  associated  with  Canadian 
history,  and  that  sturdy  Scotch  soldier,  Sir  Colin  Camp 
bell,  a  native  of  Kilninver,  tried  his  hand  at  the  mysteries 
of  civil  administration  as  Governor  of  Nova  Scotia  be 
fore  becoming  Governor  of  Ceylon. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  Scotch  Governors,  royal  or 
otherwise,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  were  fairly  cred 
itable  to,  and  representative  of,  the  Scot  abroad.  One  or 
two  of  the  royal  appointees  were  more  mercenary  in  their 
disposition  than  anything  else  —  sort  of  executive  Andrew 
Fairservices;  but  only  one  —  Robertson  —  can  be  classed  as 
a  rascal.  The  faults  which  most  of  them  committed  were 
due,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  system  under  which  they 


102  $H      ^£f(X)TL    IN* 

were  appointed,  or  to  the  measures  they  were  to  bring 
about  and  the  policy  they  were  to  enforce,  all  of  which 
were  completely  at  variance  with  the  conditions  under 
which  the  continent  was  progressing.  This  is  illustrated 
in  a  very  significant  manner,  even  in  the  brief  summary 
contained  in  this  chapter.  It  will  be  observed  that  those 
Chief  Magistrates  who  came  to  the  United  States — to  the 
American  Colonies  rather — to  stay,  to  make  their  homes 
in  the  new  land,  to  become  part  and  parcel  of  its  citizen 
ship,  to  throw  in  their  entire  future  with  it,  made  good 
executive  officers,  and  have  left  records  which  are  equally 
creditable  to  America  and  Scotland.  Such  men  as  Spot- 
tiswood,  Johnston,  Hamilton,  and  Colden,  for  example, 
still  command  the  admiration  of  American  historical 
writers,  and  now  that  the  bitterness  of  the  Revolution 
has  long  been  buried — let  us  hope  forever — the  fact  that 
they  were  at  one  and  the  same  time  loyal  to  the  people 
over  whom  they  ruled  and  to  the  sovereign  they  served  is 
freely  admitted.  Those  who  came  after  the  Revolution 
were  invariably  noted  for  their  honesty,  their  superiority 
to  mere  party  spirit,  and  for  their  moderation,  their  wis 
dom  and  their  sturdy  adherence  to  the  principles  of  the 
Constitution  and  of  law  and  order.  Carpet-bag  rulers 
have  never  been  much  in  favor  in  America  at  any  part  of 
its  history,  not  even  in  the  South  after  the  war,  in  the 
reconstruction  period,  and  they  are  now  unknown  in  the 
States,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  direct  representa 
tive  of  the  sovereign,  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES. 

THERE  was  much  in  the  Revolutionary  movement 
which  resulted  in  the  formation  and  independence  of  the 
United  States  to  attract  Scotsmen  to  the  cause.  In  Scot 
land  the  people  were  by  no  means  intense  in  their  loyalty 
to  the  Orange  King  or  the  Hanoverian  dynasty,  and  in 
the  Highlands  especially,  the  fact  that  "  a  stranger  filled 
the  Stuarts'  throne  "  rankled  in  the  hearts  of  every  one. 
Even  in  the  Lowlands,  where  the  majority  of  the  people 
were  not  in  favor  of  the  restoration  of  the  "  Auld  Stu 
arts,"  movements  looking  to  greater  freedom  under  the 
prevailing  Government  were  rife.  Such  movements  were 
termed  seditious  and  were  repressed  with  all  the  severity 
and  cruelty  possible.  Many  of  those  concerned  in  these 
movements  were  glad  to  fly  to  America,  and  we  can 
easily  imagine  that  their  views  anent  human  freedom  and 
the  right  of  all  citizens  to  a  voice  in  the  affairs  of  State 
did  not  change  after  they  had  crossed  the  sea.  The  close 
of  the  seventeenth  century  and  the  whole  of  the  eight 
eenth  was  a  period  of  unrest  in  Scotland  as  well  as  in 
Continental  Europe,  and  would  probably  have  found  vent 
in  the  end  in  rebellion  there,  if  not  in  revolution,  as  in 
France  and  America,  had  not  Robert  Burns  crystallized 
the  sentiments  of  the  people  into  many  of  his  matchless 
lyrics  and  inspired  them  with  hope  for  the  future  in  such 
reassuring  prophetic-like  words  as  those  of  "  A  man's  a 
man  for  a'  that." 

The  Scotch  soldiers  who  were  settled  on  grants  of  land 

in  the  States,  as  a  reward  for  their  military  services,  were 

steadfast  in  their  loyalty  to  Britain  at  the  outbreak  of 

hostilities.    They  still  regarded  themselves  as  soldiers  of 

103 


104  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

King  George,  and  considered,  in  view  of  their  land  hold 
ings,  that  they  were  under  obligation  to  continue  to  fight 
his  battles  when  occasion  demanded,  without  any  consid 
eration  as  to  the  merits  of  the  question  which  was  to  be 
settled  by  a  resort  to  arms.  The  well-known  loyalty  of 
these  men  and  their  military  reputation  drew  upon  them 
— and,  to  a  certain  extent,  upon  their  countrymen — the 
ill-will  of  many,  and  caused  some  of  the  patriots  to  de 
scribe  the  Scots  as  being  generally  anti-revolutionary  in 
their  ideas,  although,  had  they  chosen  to  look  around  a 
little,  exactly  the  opposite  truth  might  become  apparent 
to  them.  It  was  on  this  erroneous  idea  that  John  Trum- 
bull  of  Connecticut  wrote  the  doggerel  lines  of  "  McFin- 
gal."  Describing  that  fictitious  hero.  Trumbull  sa)/s: 

"  His   high   descent   our   heralds   trace, 
To  Ossian's  famed  Fingalian  race; 
For  tho'  their  name  some  part  may  lack 
Old  Fingal  spelt  it  with  a  Mac; 
Which  great  McPherson,  with  submission 
We  hope  will  add,  the  next  edition. 
His  fathers  flourished  in  the  Highlands 
Of  Scotia's  fog-benighted  islands." 

In  commenting  on  this  passage,  the  late  Benson  J. 
Lossing,  the  latest  and  best  editor  of  the  poem,  wrote: 

"  The  Scotch  were  noted  for  their  loyalty,  in  this  coun 
try,  and  were  generally  found  among  the  Tories,  espe 
cially  in  the  Carolinas.  This  fact  and  the  odium  that 
rested  upon  the  Jacobites  in  the  Mother  Country  made 
the  Americans,  during  the  Revolution,  look  with  suspi 
cion  upon  all  Scotsmen.  Jefferson  manifested  this  feeling 
when  he  drew  up  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  In 
the  original  draft  he  alluded  to  '  Scotch  and  foreign  mer 
cenaries.  This  was  omitted  on  motion  of  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon,  who  was  a  Scotsman  by  birth.  In  most  minds 
the  word  Jacobite  was  synonymous  with  Popery.  Trum 
bull  showed  his  dislike  of  the  Scotch  by  his  choice  of  a 
hero  in  this  poem.  Frenau,  another  eminent  poet  of  the 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  1Q5 

Revolution,  also  evinced  the  same  hatred.  In  one  of  his 
poems,  in  which  he  gives  Burgoyne  many  hard  rubs,  he 
consigns  the  Tories,  with  Burgoyne  at  their  head,  to  an 
ice-bound,  fog-covered  island  off  the  north  coast  of  Scot 
land,  thus: 

'  There,  Loyals,  there,  with  loyal  hearts  retire ; 
There  pitch  your  tents  and  kindle  there  your  fire, 
There  desert  nature  will  her  strings  display, 
And  fiercest  hunger  on  your  vitals   prey.'  " 

The  bulk  of  the  Scots  who  crossed  the  Atlantic,  other 
than  those  in  the  military  service,  from  1700  till  the  out 
break  of  the  Revolution,  and  long  after,  were  discontent 
ed  with  the  prevailing  condition  of  things  at  home.  Some 
wonder,  knowing  the  intense  loyalty  of  the  Scots  of  the 
'present  day,  that  settlers  of  that  country  should  have 
taken  such  an  active  part  in  the  pre- Revolutionary  move 
ments  in  America,  and  been  so  ready  to  throw  off  their 
allegiance ;  but  no  one  who  has  studied  the  history  of  the 
people,  particularly  in  the  period  named,  will  be  in  the 
least  surprised.  The  exiles  of  Dunbar  and  of  Cromwell's 
regime  may  have  had  some  sentimental  regard  for  the 
King  they  fought  for,  but  the  news  of  his  doings  after 
the  "  blessed  restoration  "  crushed  it  out.  The  prisoners 
of  the  Covenanting  frays  had  little  reverence  for  the  royal 
authority  and  their  descendants  had  none.  After  relig 
ious  liberty  had  been  won,  the  movement  for  civil  liberty 
commenced  in  earnest  and  men  were  sent  to  prison  for 
holding  sentiments  as  well  as  for  standing  out  in  actual 
opposition  to  ''  the  powers  that  be."  Even  such  senti 
ments  as  "  The  nation  is  essentially  the  source  of  all  sov 
ereignty  "  and  "  Equal  representation,  just  taxation,  and 
liberty  of  conscience  "  were  deemed  treasonable  enough 
to  cause  the  arrest  of  their  utterers,  and  such  policy  sent 
hundreds  of  good  men  and  true  across  the  sea.  These 
wanderers  found  in  America  an  opportunity  for  securing 
that  religious  liberty  and  that  freedom  and  perfect  equal 
ity  before  the  law  they  could  not  obtain  at  home.  When 


10G  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

the  Revolutionary  troubles  began  they  or  their  descend 
ants  entertained  no  loyalty  for  King  George  or  his  dy 
nasty;  they  knew  that  Scotland  had  suffered  deeply,  not 
only  at  the  hands  of  the  last  two  Kings  of  the  old  royal 
house,  but  at  those  of  King  William  "  of  blessed  mem 
ory."  Besides,  from  the  time  that  John  Knox  had  estab 
lished  in  the  Kirk  the  most  perfect  form  of  republican 
government  of  which  the  \vorld  has  yet  had  knowledge,  a 
growing  sentiment,  although  in  most  instances  an  un 
conscious  sentiment,  in  favor  of  a  republican  form  of 
government  for  State  as  well  as  for  Kirk  existed  in  the 
country.  These  are  some  of  the  reasons  which  made 
Scotsmen  in  America,  or  rather  the  majority  of  them,  be 
as  devoted  to  the  principles  at  stake  in  the  American 
Revolution  as  were  any  of  the  native  patriots. 

Thus,  in  the  highest  circle  of  American  patriotism, 
among  the  Signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
we  find  the  Scottish  race  well  represented.  Quite  a  num 
ber  were  of  Scotch  descent,  such  as  George  Ross,  who 
was  the  son  of  a  Scottish  minister,  and  Thomas  McKean, 
afterward  Governor  of  Pennsylvania.  Two  were  natives 
of  Scotland.  One  of  these  was  James  Wilson,  a  repre 
sentative  of  Pennsylvania,  who  "was  born  near  St.  An 
drews,  Fifeshire,  in  1742.  He  was  educated  at  the  uni 
versity  in  that  ancient  city  and  also  at  the  Universities 
of  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh.  After  settling  in  America 
he  was  employed  for  a  time  as  a  teacher  in  Philadelphia, 
and  won  a  high  reputation  for  his  knowledge  of  the 
classics.  Then  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  study  of  the 
law  and  in  due  time  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  prac 
ticed,  among  other  places,  in  Annapolis,  Md.,  and  in 
Reading,  Pa.,  afterward  making  his  home  again  in  Phila 
delphia.  He  was  a  prominent  advocate  of  the  rights  of 
the  Colonies,  and  in  the  Congress  of  1775,  of  which  he 
was  a  member,  he  strongly  advocated  independence  as 
the  only  possible  means  of  escape  from  the  evils  which 
had  brought  the  various  Commonwealths  into  such  a 
state  of  turmoil  and  dissatisfaction.  In  1779  he  was  ap 
pointed  Advocate  General  for  the  French  Government  in 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  1Q7 

the  United  States,  but  resigned  the  office  in  1781.  He 
continued,  however,  to  give  professional  advice  to  the 
French  Government  until  1783,  when  he  received  from 
Paris  a  gift  of  10,000  livres  in  recognition  of  his  services. 
He  served  in  Congress  in  1783  and  1786,  and  in  1789  be 
came,  by  appointment  of  George  Washington,  one  of  the 
Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  A 
capable  lawyer,  an  upright  and  honorable  citizen,  wise  in 
his  counsels,  and  moderate,  yet  determined,  in  all  his  pub 
lic  utterances,  we  can  easily  understand  that  Judge  Wil 
son  held  a  high  position  in  the  Revolutionary  councils, 
and  how,  after  the  turmoil  of  the  struggle  was  over,  he 
should  be  elevated  to  a  seat  on  the  highest  tribunal  of 
the  country  and  so  assist  in  placing  the  legal  system  of 
the  new  nation  on  a  sure  foundation.  He  died,  while  on  a 
circuit  journey,  at  Edenton,  N.  C.,  in  1798. 

One  of  the  most  notable  figures  among  the  group  of 
Signers,  and  said  by  some  to  have  indeed  been  the  real 
author  of  the  Declaration,  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  With- 
erspoon,  President  of  Princeton  College.  This  great  and 
good  man  was  born  at  Yester,  Haddingtonshire,  in  1722. 
He  could  trace  his  descent  from  John  Knox  in  the 
female  line  and  on  the  other  side  from  John  Knox's 
heroic  son-in-law,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Welsh.  His  father  was 
the  minister  of  the  parish  of  Yester,  and  Witherspoon 
was  educated  for.  the  pulpit  in  the  University  of  Edin 
burgh.  His  first  charge  was  the  parish  of  Beith,  Ayr 
shire,  and  there  the  excellence  of  his  pulpit  discourses, 
the  high  standard  of  his  published  writings  and  his  nat 
ural  qualities  as  a  leader  soon  won  for  him  a  high  rank 
among  the  Scottish  clergy.  In  the  General  Assembly 
he  became  a  power  on  the  side  of  the  Evangelical  party— 
the  party  that  was  trying  to  rouse  the  Church  from  the 
lethargy  into  which  it  had  been  thrown  by  the  rhetoric, 
the  phrases,  the  artificiality  of  the  "  Moderates."  Prob 
ably  his  \vork  on  "  Ecclesiastical  Characteristics,"  pub 
lished  in  1753,  and  directed  against  the  Moderate  party 
in  the  Scottish  Church,  was  the  most  pithy  and  pungent 
bit  of  genuine  sarcasm  which  Scottish  theological  writing 


108  THE     SCOT    IN    AMERICA. 

had  up  to  that  time  produced,  and  it  proved  the  literary 
sensation  of  the  hour.  In  1757  he  accepted  a  call  from 
Paisley,  and,  although  he  had  afterward  calls  from  Dub 
lin,  Dundee,  Rotterdam  and  other  places,  he  remained  in 
"  Seestu  "  until  1768,  when  he  accepted  a  demand  for  his 
services  as  presiding  officer  over  Princeton  College,  a 
demand  which  when  made  on  a  previous  occasion  he  had 
refused. 

Dr.  Witherspoon  was  a  noted  man  before  crossing  to 
America;  he  had  attained  by  his  preaching  and  his  lit 
erary  capacity  the  highest  rank  among  his  contempo 
raries.  In  America  he  soon  became  equally  popular  and 
influential.  Princeton  College  quickly  became,  under 
his  direction,  the  foremost  in  the  country,  and  it  would 
have  soon  been  regarded  as  among  the  noted  seats  of 
learning  in  the  world  had  not  the  troubles  of  the  Revolu 
tion  paralyzed  its  usefulness,  as  they  did  that  of  all  the 
higher  educational  institutions  in  the  country.  The  college 
was  finally  compelled  to  close  its  doors,  for  around 
Princeton  the  tide  of  war  for  a  time  beat  rudely.  While 
the  duties  of  his  assigned  office  thus  fell  away  from  him, 
however,  Dr.  Witherspoon  assumed  others,  which  have 
given  him  a  commanding  place  in  the  history  of  the  Rev 
olution.  "  He  assisted,"  writes  Lossing,  "  in  framing  a  re 
publican  Constitution  for  New  Jersey,  and  in  June  (1776) 
he  was  elected  to  a  seat  in  the  Continental  Congress, 
where  he  hotly  advocated  independence  and  signed  his 
name  on  the  Declaration  thereof.  He  was  a  faithful 
member  of  Congress  until  1782  and  took  a  conspicuous 
part  in  military  and  financial  matters."  In  1783  the  time 
seemed  ripe  for  renewing  the  activity  of  Princeton,  and 
Dr.  Witherspoon  turned  his  attention  from  secular  af 
fairs  to  engage  solely  in  that  work,  and  he  combined 
teaching  and  preaching  until  his  death,  in  1794.  The 
saddest  feature  of  his  closing  years  was  a  visit  he  paid  to 
his  native  land,  primarily  in  search  of  financial  assistance 
to  carry  on  the  work  of  his  college.  He  was  deeply 
pained  to  find  his  efforts  in  this  direction  a  failure,  but  the 
saddest  blow  came  from  the  personal  treatment  he  re- 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  109 

ceived,  mainly  at  the  hands  of  his  brother  clergy.  He 
was  denounced  as  a  traitor  on  every  side  and  shunned 
by  many  who  knew  him  well  and  were  his  friends  and 
allies  before  he  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  new  republic. 
That  sort  of  treatment  was,  however,  to  be  expected,  and 
it  seems  that  even  Witherspoon  dreaded  it  when  he  left 
America  on  his  journey  to  his  native  land.  The  clergy 
of  Scotland  at  that  time  (1785)  were  by  no  means  the 
believers  in  popular  liberty  their  predecessors  were,  and 
it  needed  the  discipline  of  the  Disruption  to  bring  them, 
as  a  class,  once  more  to  appreciate  the  power  and  in 
fluence  of  the  people  wlien  rightly  enlisted  and  directed. 
'Dr.  Witherspoon  was  by  no  means  the  only  Scottish 
clergyman  who  was  active  on  the  side  of  the  Revolution. 
There  were  in  reality  very  many  such,  and,  indeed,  it 
might  be  said  that  the  Presbyterians  and  the  great  ma 
jority  of  those  then  classed  as  "  nonconformists  "  were 
outspoken  in  favor  of  independence.  A  noted  example 
was  that  of  the  JR.ev.  John  Roxburgh,  who  was  born  at 
Berwick  in  1714  and  settled  in  America  in  1740.  He 
studied  for  the  ministry  at  Princeton,  graduating  from 
there  in  1761,  and  soon  after  was  ordained  as  pastor  of  a 
church  in  Warren  County,  New  Jersey.  In  1769  he  as 
sumed  a  pastorate  at  the  Forks  of  Delaware  and  held 
that  charge  at  the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  early  dis 
tinguished  by  his  emphatic  views  in  favor  of  separation, 
and  soon  after  the  conflict  broke  out  he  joined  in  the 
formation  of  a  military  company  from  his  own  vicinity. 
He  became  chaplain  of  a  battalion  of  militia  and  served 
during  most  of  the  New  Jersey  campaign.  At  the  battle 
of  Trenton,  in  1777,  he  was  taken  prisoner  by  a  gang  of 
Hessians  and  brutally  murdered. 

As  ardent  an  American  patriot,  although  less  militant 
in  his  disposition,  was  the  Rev.  Henry  Patillo,  who  was 
taken  to  America  from  Scotland,  where  he  was  born,  in 
1736,  when  only  nine  years  of  age.  Beginning  life  as  a 
clerk  in  a  store,  he  studied  for  the  ministry,  was  ordained 
in  1758,  and  settled  in  North  Carolina.  His  ministerial 
labors  were  confined  thereafter  to  that  State,  and  among 


110  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

the  negroes,  especially,  his  work  was  very  effective.  He 
ranked  as  an  excellent  classical  scholar,  and  his  published 
volume  of  sermons  prove  him  to  have  been  a  preacher 
of  more  than  ordinary  power.  From  the  first,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  he  was  in  favor  of  the  complete  in 
dependence  of  the  Colonies,  and  spoke  on  that  once  dan 
gerous  topic  on  every  possible  occasion.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Provincial  Council  in  1775  and  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  the  country  fairly  started  in  its  na 
tional  career  long  before  he  died,  in  1801. 

Another  Scottish  clergyman  deserves  to  be  recalled 
here,  because  he  was  outspoken  in  his  advocacy  of  the 
principles  at  stake  in  the  Revolution  while  still  residing 
in  Scotland  and  preaching  there.  This  was  the  Rev. 
CharJes  Nisbet,  who  was  born  at  Long  Yester, .  Had- 
dingtonshire,  where  his  father  was  a  schoolmaster,  in 
1728.  He  was  educated  at  Edinburgh  University  and 
became  pastor  of  a  church  at  Montrose.  It  was  while 
there  that  his  utterances  in  favor  of  the  American  Revo 
lution  were  delivered,  and  his  justification  of  Washington 
and  his  associates  was  regarded  with  disfavor  by  the 
leading  people  of  the  district  and  caused  him  to  be  con 
sidered  as,  politically,  a  suspicious  character.  In  1783, 
when  John  Dickinson  of  Delaware  founded  at  Carlisle, 
Pa.,  as  a  Presbyterian  college,  the  institution  which  still 
bears  his  name,  an  offer  of  the  Presidency  was  tendered 
to  Nisbet,  and  he  gladly  accepted.  He  was  even  anxious 
to  leave  Scotland  and  take  up  his  abode  in  a  country 
where  his  sentiments  concerning  human  liberty  would 
be  regarded  as  orthodox,  or  where  at  least  he  would 
have  opportunity  of  expressing  and  ventilating  those  sen 
timents  without  giving  offense.  In  the  Statistical  Ac 
count  of  Haddington,  written  in  1835,  by  the  Rev.  John 
Thomson,  we  read  the  following  summary  of  Nisbet's 
American  experiences:  "Although  a  man  of  distin 
guished  attainments,  he  seems  to  have  enjoyed  little 
comfort  and  less  worldly  prosperity  in  '  the  land  of  lib 
erty.'  Although  the  names  '  college  '  and  '  President ' 
sounded  well,  yet  he  found  that  his  situation  was  neither 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  HJ 

more  profitable  nor  more  respectable  than  that  which  his 
worthy  father  held  before  him.  On  one  occasion  he 
wrote  to  his  friends  that  '  America  was  certainly  a  land 
of  promise,  for  it  was  all  promise  and  no  performance.' " 
This  dolesome  report  was  probably  sent  to  Scotland  soon 
after  Nisbet's  settlement  at  Carlisle,  for  he  had  at  the  be 
ginning  some  disagreement  with  the  trustees  of  the  col 
lege,  and  he  resigned  his  position  within  a  few  months 
after  assuming  it.  The  matter  was,  however,  arranged 
to  his  satisfaction,  for  he  was  re-elected  to  the  Presidency 
and  continued  his  connection  with  the  institution  until  his 
death,  in  1804.  Besides  acting  as  President,  Nisbet  lec 
tured  on  philosophy,  systematic  theology,  logic,  and 
belles-lettres.  His  collected  writings  were  published  in 
1806,  and  show  him  to  have  been  a  man  of  wide  reading 
and  great  ability,  and  a  just  estimate  of  his  career,  and  of 
its  value  in  the  cause  of  American  education,  may  be 
found  in  the  excellent  memoir  which  was  published  in 
1840,  by  Dr.  Samuel  Nullis.  Long  after  his  death  Presi 
dent  Nisbet's  library,  a  large  and  extensive  collection,  in 
cluding  many  very  rare  works,  was  presented  by  his 
grandsons  to  the  library  of  Princeton  College,  so  that  to 
the  present  day  some  of  the  usefulness  of  his  lifetime 
may  be  said  to  continue  in  active  operation. 

Seeing  that  the  clergy  were  so  active  in  the  Revolution, 
it  is  an  easy  matter  to  turn  from  them  to  those  who  in  the 
tented  field  bore  the  brunt  of  the  struggle  and  willingly 
encountered  the  horrors  of  war  to  secure  the  independ 
ence  of  the  land  in  which  they  were  born  or  which  they 
had  adopted  as  their  own. 

One  of  the  most  renowned  of  these  heroes  was  Hugh 
Mercer,  who  was  born  at  Aberdeen  in  1721.  He  grad 
uated  in  medicine  at  Aberdeen  University  and  served  as  a 
surgeon  or  assistant  surgeon  in  the  army  of  Bonnie 
Prince  Charlie,  closing  his  Scottish  military  career  on  the 
field  of  Culloden.  As  soon  after  that  as  possible  he 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  in  1747  we  find  him  practicing 
as  a  physician  near  what  is  now  the  pleasant  town  of 
Mercersburg,  in  Pennsylvania.  He  was,  however,  fonder 


112  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

of  military  matters  than  of  his  own  profession,  and  he 
took  an  active  part  in  the  campaign  of  General  Braddock, 
that  ended  so  disastrously  for  that  warrior's  reputation. 
In  the  defeat  on  the  Monongahela,  Mercer  was  severely 
wounded,  and  either  wandered  from  the  main  force  of  the 
retreating  troops  or  was  left  behind  by  them  intentionally 
as  being  so  near  death  that  there  was  no  use  of  being 
cumbered  with  him.  The  business  of  human  butchery 
does  not  inspire  men  with  kindly  feelings  toward  each 
other  any  more  than  the  butchery  of  sheep  invests  the 
breast  of  the  butcher  with  pity  for  his  bleating  victims. 
Mercer  found  himself  alone  in  the  unknown  forest,  but 
with  the  energy  so  characteristic  of  his  countrymen  in 
many  like  cases,  he  determined  to  attempt,  at  least,  to 
gain  the  nearest  settlement,  Fort  Cumberland,  about 
a  hundred  miles  distant.  The  journey  occupied  several 
weeks,  and  each  day  had  its  story  of  remarkable  adven 
ture  and  constant  peril.  On  one  occasion  he  escaped 
from  the  clutches  of  a  band  of  Indians  by  climbing  into 
the  trunk  of  a  hollow  tree  and  remaining  there  till  they 
disappeared.  For  his  bravery  and  suffering  in  this  cam 
paign  he  received  a  medal  from  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
Afterward  he  was  placed  in  command,  for  a  time,  of  Fort 
Duquesne. 

Mercer  removed,  when  that  campaign  was  over,  to 
Fredericksburg,  Va.,  to  resume  the  practice  of  his  pro 
fession.  By  that  time,  however,  the  Revolutionary  tide 
had  fairly  set  in,  and  Mercer's  abilities  as  a  soldier  were 
too  well  known  to  Washington  and  the  other  leaders  in 
Virginia  to  allow  him  to  remain  in  a  peaceful  walk  of 
life  when  sterner  work  had  to  be  done.  Besides,  Mer 
cer's  own  entire  sympathies  were  with  the  movement 
and  he  was  pronounced  in  his  views  for  independence  as 
soon  as  the  first  glimmer  of  its  light  was  seen.  One 
who  had  already  fought  against  King  George  in  Scot 
land  was  not  very  likely  to  be  enthusiastic  in  his  support 
in  America,  even  although  circumstances  led  him  to  fight 
under  a  General  (Braddock)  who  was  one  of  the  com 
manders  in  the  victorious  army  at  Culloden.  He  agitated 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  H3 

with  all  his  might  for  the  maintenance  of  the  rights  of  the 
Colonies,  and  in  1775  organized  the  afterward  famous 
Minute  Men  of  Virginia.  He  also  put  the  militia  of  the 
State  in  readiness  for  campaigning.  In  1776  Congress 
commissioned  him  a  Brigadier  General,  on  the  advice  of 
Washington,  and  he  at  once  took  a  high  place  in  the 
forces  of  the  young  republic.  His  military  career  was  cut 
short,  however,  in  the  campaign  in  New  Jersey.  After 
leading  the  forces  in  a  night  march  on  Princeton,  he  was 
mortally  wounded  in  the  battle  at  that  place  on  January 
3,  1777,  and  expired  a  few  days  later.  The  loss  of  this 
brave  man  was  deeply  regretted  by  General  Washington 
and  the  nation,  and  Congress  resolved  not  only  to  erect  a 
monument  to  his  memory  at  Fredericksburg,  but  to  edu 
cate  his  infant  son.  The  body  of  the  hero  was  interred  in 
Laurel  Hill  Cemetery,  Philadelphia,  and  the  funeral  is 
said  to  have  been  attended  by  30,000  persons.  Among 
the  associations  represented  in  the  throng  was  the  Phil 
adelphia  St.  Andrew's  Society,  of  which  he  had  been  a 
member,  and  which  still  possesses,  as  its  most  precious 
relic,  his  sword.  The  American  writers  of  the  Revolu 
tion  vie  with  each  other  in  their  tributes  to  his  honesty 
of  purpose,  his  valor,  and  his  abilities  as  a  leader,  and 
the  words  of  General  Wilkinson  may  be  regarded  as  stat 
ing  the  general  sentiment  when  he  wrote:  <k  In  Mercer  we 
lost,  at  Princeton,  a  chief  who  for  education,  talents,  dis 
position,  integrity  and  patriotism  was  second  to  no  man 
but  the  Commander-in-Chief,  Washington,  and  was 
qualified  to  fill  the  highest  trusts  in  the  country." 

A  much  more  varied,  and,  on  the  whole,  a  much  sad 
der  American  career  was  that  of  Arthur  St.  Clair.  This 
brave  and  at  one  time  greatly  maligned  man  was  born 
at  Thurso  in  1734,  and  learned  the  "  sodgerin'  trade  "  in 
the  British  Army.  He  entered  the  British  service  as  an 
ensign  and  served  under  Amherst  at  Louisbourg  and  un 
der  Wolfe  at  Quebec.  In  1762  he  resigned  his  commis 
sion,  but  continued  his  residence  in  America.  On  the 
outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  War  he  threw  in  his  lot 
with  the  Colonists,  and  was  commissioned  Colonel.  His 


114  THE    SCOT   IN   AMERICA. 

services  and  bravery  were  sc  conspicuous  that  in  1777 
he  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  Major  General,  and  placed 
in  command  of  the  important  post  of  Ticonderoga.  That 
post  was  regarded  by  many  of  the  most  experienced  offi 
cers  as  untenable,  and  even  St.  Clair  was  compelled  to 
abandon  it  to  General  Burgoyne  on  July  5,  1777.  Al 
though  some  fault  might  be  found  with  the  details  of  St. 
Glair's  defense,  there  was  no  way  of  evading  the  inevit 
able  result,  for  at  best  the  most  he  could  have  done  was 
to  delay  the  further  movements  of  the  enemy.  The  sur 
render  of  the  place,  however,  was  learned  with  much 
disfavor  by  the  American  troops,  and  to  appease  their 
dissatisfaction  St.  Clair  was  deprived  of  his  active  po 
sition  in  the  forces  and  tried  by  court-martial.  That  tri 
bunal  completely  exonerated  him,  and  he  remained  with 
the  army  as  a  volunteer,  gradually  winning  back  by  his 
services  in  that  capacity  his  former  popularity  and  in 
fluential  position.  He  served  in  Congress  from  1785  to 
1787,  and  presided  over  its  deliberations  in  the  latter 
year.  From  1788  to  1802  he  was  Governor  of  the  North 
west.  His  last  military  service  was  in  command  of  an  ex 
pedition  against  the  Miami  Indians,  in  1791,  when  he 
suffered  a  humiliating  defeat  and  lost  over  700  men. 
This  disaster  again  turned  the  tide  of  popularity  against 
him,  and  the  loud  censures  then  pronounced  were  more 
distinguished  by  their  bitterness  than  by  their  logic.  A 
defeated  soldier,  defeated  under  any  circumstances,  is 
never  an  object  of  much  respect  or  regard,  and  although 
St.  Clair  was  honorably  acquitted  of  all  blame  by  a  com 
mittee  of  Congress,  he  never  again  recovered  his  former 
reputation.  When,  in  1802,  Ohio  was  admitted  into  the 
sisterhood  of  States,  St.  Clair  relinquished,  or  had  to  re 
linquish,  his  Governorship,  and  retired  into  obscurity  and 
private  life.  He  was  old,  poor,  and  dispirited,  and  even 
suffered,  it  is  said,  the  terrors  of  poverty — the  most  re 
lentless  foe  of  old  age.  At  length,  Congress  voted  him  a 
pension  of  sixty  dollars  a  month,  and  with  that  his  few 
wants  were  abundantly  supplied  and  the  evening  gloom 
was  not  tortured  by  the  spectre  of  actual  want.  The  vet- 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  H5 

eran  died  in  1818  at  Greensburg,  and  over  his  grave  a 
handsome  monument  was  erected  several  years  later  by 
his  brethren  of  the  Masonic  fraternity. 

A  type  of  military  commander  evolved  out  of  the  war 
like  exigencies  of  the  time  without  previous  military 
training,  many  more  recent  examples  of  which  were  fur 
nished  by  the  civil  war,  was  Alexander  McDougall,  who 
was  born  in  Argyllshire,  in  the  year  1731,  and  settled  in 
America  with  his  father  in  1755.  He  was  a  seaman  at 
times,  but  appears  to  have  learned,  somehow,  the  print 
ing  trade.  When  the  dissatisfaction  with  the  home  gov 
ernment  had  nearly  reached  its  height,  McDougall  be 
came  noted  in  New  York  as  one  of  the  leading  members 
of  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  an  organization  called  into  ex 
istence  by  the  opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act,  in  1765.  The 
feeling  of  loyalty  which  the  rescinding  of  that  act  aroused 
did  not,  for  various  reasons,  last  very  long.  One  would 
almost  think,  by  reading  the  history  of  the  time,  that 
the  Home  Government  really  wanted  to  drive  the  Col 
onists  into  open  rebellion,  and  in  1769  McDougall  was 
arrested  and  thrown  into  prison  as  being  the  author,  or 
chief  compiler,  of  an  address  to  the  people,  which  was 
decreed  by  the  authorities  to  be  "  an  infamous  and 
seditious  libel."  His  career  as  a  popular  hero  dated  from 
the  moment  of  his  incarceration.  In  Booth's  "  History 
of  the  City  of  New  York"  we  read:  "A  daily  ovation 
was  rendered  him  by  his  friends,  who  regarded  him  as  a 
martyr  to  the  cause  of  liberty.  The  ladies  flocked  in 
crowds  to  the  cell  of  the  imprisoned  patriot,  and  so  nu 
merous  were  his  visitors  that,  in  order  to  gain  leisure  for 
the  defense  of  his  cause,  he  was  obliged  to  publish  a  card 
fixing  his  hours  for  public  receptions.  He  remained  in 
jail  to  the  April  term  of  the  court,  when  the  Grand  Jury 
found  a  bill  against  him,  to  which  he  pleaded  not  guilty. 
A  few  days  afterward  he  was  released  on  bail."  When 
war  was  declared,  McDougall  went  to  "  the  front "  as 
Colonel  of  the  regiment  from  New  York  City.  His  mili 
tary  merit  was  such  that  he  was  speedily  raised  to  the 
rank  of  Major  General,  and  he  was  particularly  conspicu- 


116  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

ous  in  the  battles  of  White  Plains  and  Germantown.  Be 
tween  1778  and  1780  he  had  command  of  the  forts  along 
the  Hudson  River,  one  of  the  most  important  posts  in 
the  American  Army,  and  fulfilled  his  trust  to  the  entire 
satisfaction  of  his  colleagues.  In  1781  he  was  elected  to 
Congress,  was  for  a  time  Minister  of  Marine,  and  was 
sent  to  the  United  States  Senate  in  1783.  He  died  some 
three  years  later,  while  still  filling  that  position,  to  the 
great  regret  of  General  Washington  and  all  who  were 
associated  with  him  in  military  or  political  life. 

Another  instance  of  evolution  from  civil  life  to  high 
^military  command  is  afforded  by  the  career  of  Lachlan 
1  Mclntosh,.who  from  being  a  merchant's  clerk  and  a  land 
surveyor  developed  into  a  Brigadier  General.  His  father, 
John  Mohr  Mclntosh,  was  head  of  a  small  sept  of  the 
Macintosh  clan,  and  in  1736  settled  in  Georgia,  with  100 
of  his  followers,  on  a  place  to  which  they  gave  the  name 
of  Inverness,  but  which  is  now  known  as  Darien.  Lach 
lan  was  born  at  Badenoch,  Inverness-shire,  in  1727,  ac 
companied  his  father  to  Georgia,  and  grew  up  an  enthu 
siastic  American  patriot.  When  the  war  broke  out  he 
volunteered  his  services,  and  was  commissioned  Colonel, 
becoming  a  General  in  1776.  As  a  result  of  a  duel,  in 
which  he  mortally  wounded  Button  Gwinnett,  one  of  the 
Signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  considerable 
ill-feeling  was  aroused  against  him  in  Georgia,  although 
he  was  not  the  challenger  in  the  duel,  and  was  acquitted 
after  standing  his  trial  on  a  charge  of  murder.  The 
trouble,  however,  was  so  serious  that  Mclntosh  was 
given  for  a  time  a  command  in  the  West,  with  headquar 
ters  at  Pittsburgh.  In  1779  he  was  second  in  command 
at  the  siege  of  Savannah,  and  took  part  in  the  defense 
of  Charleston.  When  that  town  was  surrendered,  in 
1780,  Mclntosh  was  made  a  prisoner,  and  with  that  ter 
minated  his  military  career.  He  retired  to  Virginia  until 
the  close  of  the  war,  and  then  settled  in  Savannah.  His 
closing  years  were  marked  by  poverty,  and  he  was  un 
doubtedly  glad  when  his  period  of  waiting*  came  to  an 
end,  and  he  entered  into  rest,  in  1806, 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  H7 

In  many  ways  one  of  the  most  prominent  figures  in 
the  Revolutionary  struggle  was  the  hero  who  was  known 
to  his  contemporaries  as  the  Earl  of  Stirling.  He  was 
generally  addressed  by  his  title ;  but  he  was  a  devoted  ad 
herent  of  the  republic,  and  the  son  of  a  man  who  was  in 
every  respect  as  ardent  an  American  patriot  as  he  became. 
With  the  justice  of  his  claim  to  be  Earl  of  Stirling,  we 
have  nothing  here  to  do.  He  preferred  the  claim  in  due 
form  to  the  British  House  of  Lords  in  1759  and  backed 
it  up  with  various  proofs,  notably  a  genealogical  tree 
showing  his  descent  from  John,  the  uncle  of  the  first 
Earl.  The  House  of  Lords  took  nearly  three  years  to 
digest  the  material  placed  before  it,  and  then  decreed 
against  the  validity  of  the  claim.  He  refused  to  acqui 
esce  in  this  decision,  and  continued  to  assume  the  title 
until  the  end  of  his  career.  The  American  family  com 
menced  with  James  Alexander,  who,  for  his  share  in  the 
rebellion  of  1715,  had  to  leave  Scotland.  He  settled  in 
New  York  and  was  appointed  its  Surveyor  General,  and 
Governor  Burnet  made  him  a  member  of  his  council. 
He  was  held  in  high  esteem,  and,  along  with  Benjamin 
Franklin  and  others,  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Philosophical  Society  of  America.  By  his  marriage  with 
the  Scotch  widow  of  an  American  trader,  he  had  four 
daughters  (one  of  whom  married  General  John  Reid, 
founder  of  the  Chair  of  Music  in  Edinburgh  University 
and  composer  of  the  famous  song  "  In  the  Garb  of  Old 
Gaul ")  and  one  son,  the  claimant  of  the  Stirling  peer 
age  and  its  acknowledged  holder  in  America.  He  died 
in  1756. 

Major  William  Alexander,  or  the  Earl  of  Stirling, 
as  he  preferred  to  be  called,  and  as,  for  that  reason  if  for 
no  other,  we  will  call  him,  was  born  in  New  York  in 
1726.  After  a  short  experience  in  commercial  affairs,  he 
became  private  secretary  and  aide-de-camp  to  General 
Shirley,  then  commanding  the  Colonial  forces,  and  when 
that  officer  was  recalled,  Lord  Stirling  accompanied  him 
to  England.  His  time  there  was  mainly  devoted  to  the 
prosecution  of  his  peerage  claims,  with  the  unfavorable 


118  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

result  already  mentioned.  On  his  return  to  America,  he 
was  appointed  Surveyor  General  of  New  York  and  a 
member  of  the  Council  in  New  Jersey.  He  threw  himself 
with  the  utmost  ardor  into  the  movement  for  indepen 
dence,  although  thereby  he  knew  that  he  dissipated  any 
chance  he  might  have  for  a  legal  acknowledgment  of 
his  claims  to  the  peerage,  and  started  in  the  war  as 
Colonel  of  a  regiment.  His  promotion  was  rapid  and  his 
military  career  brilliant.  In  January,  1776,  he  captured 
a  British  transport  in  the  Bay  of  New  York  with  a  small 
force,  and  in  March  of  that  year  he  was  placed  in  com 
mand  of  New  York  and  dexterously  fortified  the  city 
and  harbor.  He  was  taken  prisoner  near  Brooklyn,  on 
Long  Island,  but  exchanged,  and  took  part  in  the  bat 
tles  of  Brandy  wine,  Germantown,  and  Monmouth.  In 
1781,  with  the  rank  of  Major  General,  he  was  placed 
in  command  of  the  Northern  Army,  with  headquarters 
at  Albany,  and  he  died  in  that  city  in  1783.  "  It  is  a 
singular  fact,"  says  Lossing,  "  that  during  the  War  of 
Independence,  Lord  Stirling  had  command  at  different 
times  of  every  brigade  in  the  American  Army,  except 
those  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia."  By  his  marriage 
with  Sarah,  eldest  daughter  of  Philip  Livingston,  Lord 
Stirling  had  two  daughters,  but  no  son,  and  so  the  claims 
of  his  branch  of  the  Alexander  family  to  the  peerage 
died  with  him.  In  the  brilliant  galaxy  of  Revolutionary 
heroes,  he  holds  an  honored  place,  but  his  memory  is 
perhaps  now  held  in  greener  remembrance  for  the  serv 
ices  he  performed  for  Columbia  College,  of  which  he 
was  for  a  long  time  one  of  the  Governors. 

These  soldiers  we  have  just  named  are  all  recognized 
as  leaders  in  the  Revolutionary  cause,  and  their  deeds 
and  lives  have  become  part  and  parcel  of  American  his 
tory.  There  were  hundreds  of  others  less  prominent, 
however,  but  by  no  means  less  brave,  less  loyal  to  the 
cause,  less  self-sacrificing,  or,  in  a  sense,  less  needful. 
That  struggle  wras  one  in  which  all  who  took  part  in  it 
had  to  do  their  utmost  and  to  fulfill  the  duties  allotted 
to  them  with  scrupulous  fidelity,  and  when  every  man's 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  H9 

work   was  really   necessary   to   success.     Among  these 
now  less  known  heroes  mention  may  be  made  of  Colonel 

.John, Murray,  one  of  the  bravest  of  men,  who  represent 
ed  Pennsylvania  in  the  struggle.  He  was  born  in  Perth 
shire  in  1731  and  settled  near  the  town  of  Dauphin, 
Pa.,  with  his  father,  in  1766.  He  commenced  his  active 
career  as  a  military  patriot  in  March,  1776,  when  he  was 
appointed  to  the  command  of  a  company  in  a  regiment 
of  rifles.  A  year  later  he  had  won  the  rank  of  Major, 
and  in  1778  was  Colonel  of  the  Second  Pennsylvania 
Regiment.  He  continued  in  active  service  until  the 
termination  of  hostilities,  in  1783,  having  been  present 
at  the  battles  of  Long  Island,  White  Plains,  Trenton, 
Princeton,  Germantown,  and  Brandy  wine,  besides  skirm 
ishes  innumerable.  When  the  struggle  was  over  he  re 
tired  to  Dauphin  County,  was  appointed  a  Justice  of  the 
Peace  in  1791  and  so  continued  in  the  duties  of  active 
citizenship  until  his  death,  in  1798.  A  brother  of  this 
hero,  James  Murray,  who  came  from  Scotland  with  the 
rest  of  the  family,  served  through  the  war,  mostly  as 
Captain  in  the  Pennsylvania  troops. 

Another    Scottish-American    who   figured    very    con 
spicuously  in  Pennsylvania's  quota  of  patriots  was  Will-   \ 

Jam  Leiper,  who  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  famous 
Philadelphia  City  Troop,  and  served  with  it  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  war.  He  was  born  at  Strathaven  in 
I74.S,  settled  in  Maryland  in  1763,  but  removed  to  Phil 
adelphia  two  years  later,  and  thereafter  made  it  his  home. 
He  engaged  in  the  business  of  storing  and  exporting  to 
bacco  and  the  manufacture  of  tobacco  and  snuff,  and 
amassed  a  large  fortune.  For  years  he  was  looked  upon 
as  one  of  the  most  public-spirited  of  the  citizens  of  Phil 
adelphia,  and  every  scheme  for  the  advancement  of  the 
city  or  for  the  promotion  of  its  interests  found  in  him  a 
liberal  and  thoughtful  patron.  The  first  tramway  in 
America  was  laid  under  Leiper's  direction,  in  1809,  and 
as  President  of  the  Philadelphia  Common  Council  he 
proved  a  model  official  by  the  interest  he  took  in  every 
matter  pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  the  city.  He  served 
also  as  a  Presidential  Elector,  and  was  one  of  the  first,  if 


120  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

not  the  first,  to  nominate  Andrew  Jackson,  his  beau 
ideal  among  America's  public  men,  for  the  Presidency. 
Mr.  Leiper's  later  years  were  spent  in  dignified  retire 
ment,  and  as  he  survived  till  1825,  he  had  the  satisfac 
tion  of  seeing  his  adopted  country  prosperous  and  pro 
gressive  after  almost  half  a  century  of  independence. 

William  Fleming,  who  was  born  in  Lanarkshire  in 
1740,  may  serve  as  a  type  of  the  Southern  soldier.  He 
emigrated  when  twenty  years  of  age  and  settled  on  a 
large  tract  of  land  at  Botecourt,  Augusta  County,  Va. 
His  property  steadily  increased  in  value  until,  in  the 
prime  of  life,  Fleming  could  regard  himself  as  a  fairly 
rich  man.  In  the  district  in  which  he  had  settled  he  was 
very  popular.  He  had  received  a  good  education,  was 
well  read,  and  was  a  man  of  fine  appearance,  and  these 
qualities,  joined  with  his  fondness  for  atheltic  sports,  to 
gether  with  a  commonly  credited  report  that  he  was  real 
ly  of  aristocratic  parentage,  his  generous  hospitality,  and 
his  interest  in  public  affairs,  won  him  hosts  of  friends. 
When  the  outbreak  with  the  mother  country  was  immi 
nent,  Fleming1  raised  a  regiment  which  he  afterward  com 
manded  at  the  battle  of  Point  Pleasant.  His  military 
career  ended  with  that  engagement,  however,  for  in  it  he 
received  a  wound,  from  the  effects  of  which  he  never 
fully  recovered.  Colonel  Fleming  is  said  by  some  au 
thorities  to  have  served  for  a  short  time  as  Governor  of 
Virginia  during  the  troubles. 

Of  all  the  soldiers  in  the  Revolution,  none  had,  on  the 
\vhole,  a  more  extraordinary  career  than  James  Swaip 
who  was  born  in  Fifeshire  in  1754  and  settled  in  Boston 
when  a  young  man.  He  was  for  a  time  a  mercantile 
clerk,  but  soon  became  more  noted  for  his  advocacy  of 
the  movement  for  independence  than  for  his  business 
abilities,  although,  as  long  subsequent  events  showed,  his 
business  qualities  were  of  a  high  order.  He  formed  one 
of  the  celebrated  "  Boston  Tea  Party  "  and  acted  as  an 
aide  de  camp  to  Gen.  Warren  at  Bunker  Hill.  In  that 
famous  skirmish  he  was  severely  wounded.  Afterward 
as  a  Captain  in  Crafts's  regiment  of  artillery  Swan  saw 
much  active  service,  and  he  was  in  the  expedition  that 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  121 

compelled  the  British  forces  to  leave  Boston  Harbor.  As 
Secretary  to  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  War,  as  mem 
ber  of  the  State  Legislature,  and  as  Adjutant  General  of 
the  State,  he  rendered  a  series  of  magnificent  services  to 
the  Commonwealth.  But  while  thus  winning  honors  as 
a  patriot  his  private  fortunes  were  not  flourishing,  and, 
despairing  of  meeting  with  much  financial  success  in  the 
then  unsettled  state  of  the  country,  Swan  retired  from 
public  life  and  went  to  France.  There  in  a  few  years  he 
accumulated  a  fortune,  and  when  he  returned  to  the 
United  States,  in  1795,  he  was  noted  equally  for  his 
wealth,  his  charity,  and  his  munificence.  In  1798  he  re 
turned  to  Europe  and  engaged  in  large  commercial 
ventures,  all  of  which  were  wonderfully  successful.  In 
1815  his  career  was  cut  short  by  his  being  arrested  and 
lodged  in  prison  on  charges  preferred  by  a  German  with 
whom  he  had  had  dealings.  He  remained  in  durance  until 
1830,  living  meantime  in  a  style  of  the  greatest  luxury 
and  enjoying  the  additional  prodigality  of  a  score  of  law 
suits.  A  year  later  he  died  in  Paris.  Swan  was  a  man  of 
brilliant  genius,  of  that  there  is  no  doubt,  and  he  pos 
sessed  many  of  the  qualities  of  a  statesman,  as  well  as 
those  of  a  soldier  and  a  merchant.  His  pamphlets  on  the 
fisheries  of  Massachusetts  show  that  he  was  alive  to  the 
importance  of  an  industry  then  wholly  unappreciated, 
while  his  work  against  the  slave  trade,  published  at  Bos 
ton  in  1773,  demonstrated  his  belief  that  all  men,  black 
and  white,  are  born  free  and  equal,  long  before  that  senti 
ment  became  recognized,  even  as  a  figure  of  speech,  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

It  is  singular  to  find  that  several  Scots  took  part  in  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and,  having  just  mentioned  one 
who  fought  on  the  American  side,  it  may  not  be  out  of 
place  to  recall  another  Scot,  and  also  another  native  of 
Fifeshire,  who  was  in  the  opposing  ranks — in  the  ranks 
of  King  George.  This  was  John  Pitcairn,  son  of  the  Rev. 
David  Pitcairn,  minister  of  Dysart,  and  a  representative 
of  the  old  Fifeshire  house  of  Pitcairn  of  Pitcairn.  John 
Pitcairn,  when  twenty-five  years  of  age,  became  a  Cap 
tain  in  the  Royal  Marines,  and  was  commissioned  a  Ma- 


122  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

jor  in  1771.  He  was  for  a  considerable  time  stationed  at 
Boston,  and  had  the  reputation  of  being  the  only  British 
officer  who  showed  any  consideration  for  the  people  in 
their  frequent  petty  troubles  with  the  soldiery.  On  April 
19,  1775,  he  was  in  command  of  the  British  squad  in  the 
famous  skirmish  at  Lexington,  generally  regarded  as  the 
opening  contest  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Bancroft 
says:  ''  Pitcairn  rode  in  front,  and,  when  within  five  or 
six  rods  of  the  Minute  Men,  cried  out:  '  Disperse,  ye  vil 
lains!  Ye  rebels,  disperse!  Lay  down  your  arms!  Why 
don't  you  lay  down  your  arms  and  disperse?  '  The  main 
part  of  the  countrymen  stood  motionless  in  the  ranks, 
witnesses  against  aggression;  too  few  to  resist,  too  brave 
to  fly.  At  this  Pitcairn  discharged  a  pistol  and  with  a 
loud  voice  cried  'Fire!'  The  order  was  followed  first 
by  a  few  guns  which  did  no  execution,  and  then  by  a 
close  and  deadly  discharge  of  musketry."  This  very  cir 
cumstantial  story  has,  however,  been  denied  in  most  of 
its  details  by  other  historians,  and  Pitcairn  himself  always 
averred  that  it  was  the  Minute  Men  who  fired  the  first 
shot.  Seven  of  the  latter  were  killed,  among  them  being 
Robert  Munroe,  a  Scotsman,  who  as  an  ensign  in  one  of 
the  Highland  regiments  had  helped  to  win  Louisbourg 
for  his  country  from  the  French  in  1758.  In  the  retreat 
from  Concord  on  the  afternoon  of  the  Lexington  affray 
Pitcairn  had  to  abandon  his  horse  and  pistols,  and  very 
nearly  lost  his  life.  At  Bunker  Hill  he  was  conspicuous 
for  his  bravery.  In  the  last  assault  made  on  the  hill  he 
was  the  first  to  climb  to  the  redoubt,  which  he  did,  crying : 
"  Now  for  the  glory  of  the  marines !  "  but  fell  mortally 
wounded  by  a  shot  fired  by  a  negro — the  last  shot,  it  is 
said,  fired  in  the  fight.  Major  Pitcairn  was  carried  to  the 
City  of  Boston,  and  died  within  a  few  hours.  He  had 
married  early  in  life  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Robert  Dal- 
rymple  of  Annefield,  Dumfries-shire,  and  left  her  a  widow 
with  eleven  children.  She  secured  a  pension  of  £200  a 
year  from  the  British  Government,  and  her  eldest  son, 
David,  became  one  of  the  most  noted  physicians  in  Lon 
don,  dying  in  that  city  in  1809,  the  recognized  head  of 
his  profession. 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  122 

We  have  probably  said  enough  about  the  military  he 
roes  of  the  Revolution — adduced  sufficient  instances  to 
prove  the  importance  of  the  Scotch  element  in  it.  We 
may,  therefore,  turn  to  another  field — that  of  statesman 
ship — which  was  as  essential  to  the  success  of  the  move 
ment  as  the  military  prowess  of  the  warriors.  Had  the 
advice  of  the  Scotch  settlers,  or  of  the  majority  of  the 
Scotch  representatives  of  the  Home  Government,  been 
taken,  there  would  never  have  been  any  revolution  at 
all — at  least  at  the  time  and  under  the  circumstances  it 
did.  Alexander  Kennedy,  for  example,  who  was  Col 
lector  of  Customs  at  the  Port  of  New  York,  and  in  1750 
a  member  of  the  Provincial  Council,  was  continually,  in 
his  letters  to  headquarters,  in  his  reports,  and  in  his  pub 
lished  writing's,  urging  the  importance  of  the  American 
Colonies  to  the  mother  country  and  advocating  measures 
and  giving  suggestions  which,  if  carried  out,  would  un 
doubtedly  have  strengthened  their  loyalty  and  added  to 
their  wealth  and  prosperity.  But  no  attention  was  paid 
to  such  warning  voices.  Kennedy,  who  became  Receiver 
General  of  the  Province  of  New  York — proof  sufficient 
that  he  was  a  man  possessing  some  influence  with  the 
home  powers — was  descended  from  the  third  Earl  of  Cas- 
silis.  He  married  a  Miss  Massam  of  New  York,  and 
when  he  died,  in  1763,  left  a  son,  Archibald.  This  son  be 
came  a  Captain  in  the  Royal  Navy,  and  in  1792,  on  the 
death  of  the  tenth  Earl  of  Cassilis  without  issue,  suc 
ceeded  to  the  Earldom.  He  had  married  Anne,  sister  of 
John  Watts,  at  one  time  President  of  the  St.  Andrew's 
Society  of  'New  York,  and  their  descendants  still  hold  the 
old  title  and  the  newer  one  of  Marquis  of  Ailsa.  Anne 
Watts  lies  buried  in  the  Chapel  of  Holyrood  under  a 
plain  flat  stone.  One  of  the  younger  sons  of  this  mar 
riage  married  the  sister  of  Alexander  Macomb,  who,  in 
1828,  became  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  United  States 
Army. 

The  most  brilliant  statesman  of  the  Revolution  was 
Alexander  Hamilton,  who  was  born  in  the  island  of 
Nevis,  British  West  Indies,  his  father  being  a  native  of 
Scotland  and  his  mother  a  Frenchwoman.  He  learned 


124  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

business  routine  in  a  mercantile  house  at  St.  Croix,  and 
when  sixteen  years  of  age  came  to  this  country  with  his 
widowed  mother.  He  then  entered  King's  College  and 
studied  law.  His  public  life  may  be  said  to  have  begun 
when,  at  the  age  of  seventeen  years,  he  commenced  mak 
ing  speeches  in  favor  of  freedom,  and  in  1775  he  helped 
the  Sons  of  Liberty  to  carry  off  the  cannon  from  Fort 
George,  (now  the  Battery,)  New  York.  To  trace  this 
man's  career  would  be  to  write  the  history  of  the  country 
during  its  continuance.  He  served  in  the  war,  in  Con 
gress,  and  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  Washing 
ton's  first  Cabinet.  No  one  enjoyed  to  a  greater  extent 
the  confidence  of  the  "  Father  of  his  Country,"  and  when, 
in  1798,  Washington  assumed  command  of  the  provis 
ional  army  it  was  with  the  distinct  understanding  that 
Hamilton  should  be  his  chief  associate.  His  later  years 
were  spent  in  New  York  in  the  prosecution  of  his  private 
law  business,  but  he  took  the  keenest  interest  in  politics 
and  national  affairs.  It  was  this  interest  and  a  knowledge 
of  the  influence  he  deservedly  exerted  that  led  to  a  dis 
pute  with  the  notorious  Aaron  Burr  and  to  the  latter 
sending  him  a  challenge  to  a  duel.  According  to  the 
fashion  of  the  time,  Hamilton  had  to  accept,  and  the  par 
ties  met  near  Weehawken  on  July  n,  1804,  almost  on 
the  spot  where  Hamilton's  son  had  been  killed  in  a  simi 
lar  encounter  a  few  years  before.  Hamilton  fired  in  the 
air.  Burr  shot  straight  at  his  opponent,  who  fell,  mor 
tally  wounded,  and  died  the  next  day.  There  was  a  terri 
ble  outburst  of  public  indignation  when  the  news  of  the 
duel  spread  abroad,  and  Burr  was  denounced  as  a  mur 
derer,  and  for  the  remainder  of  his  long  life  was  not  only 
ostracised  by  society,  but  was  everywhere  shunned,  and 
he  sank  into  obscurity.  Hamilton  was  interred  with  all 
possible  honors  in  Trinity  Churchyard.  He  was  through 
out  his  life  proud  of  his  Scotch  descent;  joined  the  New 
York  St.  Andrew's  Society  in  1784,  and  that  organiza 
tion  marked  the  spot  where  he  fell  by  a  neat  memorial 
stone.  That  monument  has  long  ago  disappeared — re 
moved  by  relic  hunters  for  the  most  part — and  although 
the  erection  of  another  stone  on  the  site  has  often  been 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  125 

discussed  by  New  York  Scotsmen  in  recent  years  noth 
ing  practical  has  resulted.  It  is  even  doubtful  if  the  ex 
act  site  could  now  be  determined,  so  great  have  been  the 
changes  in  the  vicinity. 

The  family  of  Watts  was  a  conspicuous  one  in  the  Rev 
olution,  and,  like  many  others,  was  divided  by  that  out 
break  into  loyalists  and  Americans.  According  to  Gen. 
De  Peyster,  the  present  able  and  cultured  representative 
of  the  family,  its  American  progenitor  was  John  Watt  of 
Rosehill,  near  Edinburgh,  who  settled  in  America  toward 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century.  His  son,  John,  be 
came  a  noted  figure  in  local  affairs,  and,  had  the  Revolu 
tion  been  suppressed,  would  have  been  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  of  the  Colony  of  New  York.  He  represented  the 
city  in  the  Assembly  for  many  years  and  was  a  member 
of  Council.  As  one  of  the  wealthiest  landed  proprietors 
in  the  colony,  he  was  munificent  in  his  private  charity 
and  in  his  public  benefactions.  He  was  one  of  the  found 
ers  and  Trustees  of  the  New  York  Society  Library,  and 
in  1760  was  the  first  President  of  the  New  York  City 
Hospital.  In  the  early  Revolutionary  struggle  he  was 
noted  for  his  strong  loyalist  proclivities,  and  when  hostili 
ties  began  he  went  to  England  and  there  remained  till  his 
death,  in  1789.  By  his  marriage  with  the  daughter  of 
Stephen  De  Lancey  he  had  a  large  family.  "  Robert,  the 
eldest  son,"  writes  Gen.  De  Peyster,  "  married  Mary,  eld 
est  daughter  of  William  Alexander,  titular  Earl  of  Stir 
ling;  Ann,  their  eldest  daughter,  married  the  Hon.  Archi 
bald  Kennedy  and  became  Countess  of  Cassilis;  Susan 
married  Philip  Kearney  and  was  mother  of  Major  Gen. 
Stephen  Wratts  Kearney,  the  conqueror  of  New  Mexico 
and  California;  Mary  married  Sir  John  Johnston,  Bart., 
and,  like  her  father,  suffered  the  pains  of  exile  and  con 
fiscation  of  property;  Stephen,  the  famous  Major  Watts 
of  Oriskany,  and  John,  the  public  benefactor."  We  give 
this  really  correct  genealogical  record  as  an  examplifica- 
tion  of  the  way  in  which  most  of  the  old  Scotch  families 
have  spread  through  what  are  now  regarded  as  leading 
American  houses,  very  few  of  which  at  the  present  day 
cannot  point  to  some  Scotch  name  in  their  family  tree. 


126  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

John  Watts,  the  son  of  this  expatriated  colonist,  was 
bred  to  the  study  of  the  law,  and  was  the  last  of  the  Royal 
Recorders  of  New  York,  serving  in  that  capacity  from 
1774  to  1777.  As  he  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  winning 
side  in  the  war,  a  large  proportion  of  the  confiscated  es 
tate  of  his  father  was  returned  to  him  and  his  brothers. 
He  became  Speaker  of  the  New  York  Assembly — from 
1791  to  1794 — served  in  Congress  for  two  years,  and  in 
1806  became  first  Judge  of  Westchester  County,  N.  Y. 
He  performed  many  good  services  to  his  country  and  de 
served  all  the  honors  he  enjoyed,  but  his  memory  is  best 
preserved  by  his  noble  act  in  founding  and  endowing 
with  a  legacy  that  came  to  him  under  distressful  circum 
stances  the  Leake  and  Watts  Orphan  House,  in  New 
York,  a  charity  which  to  the  present  day  continues  its 
beneficent  work.  Like  his  father,  he  showed  his  'par 
tiality  to  his  ancestral  country  by  joining  the  ranks  of  the 
St.  Andrew's  Society,  and  in  many  other  ways  he  demon 
strated  his  warm  heart  for  the  old  land.  A  fine  statue  of 
this  patriot-jurist,  representing  him  in  his  robes  as  Re 
corder,  has  been  erected  in  Trinity  Churchyard,  New 
York,- by  his  descendant,  Gen.  J.  Watts  de  Peyster.  A 
more  suitable  site  for  such  a  memorial  could  not  be 
found,  excepting,  perhaps,  the  corner  of  Twenty-sixth 
Street  and  Second  Avenue,  on  the  grounds  upon  which 
Bellevue  Hospital  is  now  located — grounds  which  for 
merly  belonged  to  his  family. 

A  much  less  known  statesman  than  any  of  those  we 
have  yet  mentioned,  yet  a  man  whose  services  were  of 
the  utmost  consequence  to  the  young  republic,  was  John 
Ross,  a  native  of  Tain,  who,  in  -his  day — a  day  before  the 
Revolutionary  sentiment  developed  into  war — was  one  of 
the  wealthiest  citizens  of  Philadelphia.  Ross  had  learned 
the  principles  of  business  in  Perth,  to  which  his  family 
had  removed  when  he  was  very  young.  He  settled  in 
Philadelphia  in  1763,  and  soon  was  noted  for  his  enthusi 
astic  advocacy  of  the  principles  which  were  tending  to 
political  independence;  and  for  separation  as  the  natural 
and  only  possible  outcome  of  the  entire  sea  of  troubles 
brought  about  by  the  incapacity  or  carelessness  or  arro- 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  127 

gance,  or  all  three  combined,  of  the  Home  Government, 
he  was  decidedly  outspoken.  In  1776  he  was  appointed 
by  Congress  to  attend  to  the  purchase  of  stores — cloth 
ing,  arms,  ammunition,  wagons,  camp  utensils,  &c. — for 
the  army,  and  his  whole  business  energy  and  tact  were 
devoted  to  his  duties  in  that  connection.  He  was  too 
honest  a  man  to  fill  such  a  position — one  of  the  few  hon 
est  army  contractors  on  record — and  his  own  means 
were  liberally  placed  at  the  disposal  of  his  office.  He 
proved  his  patriotism  by  his  bawbees,  and  cheerfully  in 
vested  his  whole  fortune  in  supplementing  the  grants 
given  by  Congress  for  the  purposes  of  his  department. 
In  this  way  he  not  only  exhausted  his  own  resources,  but 
found  himself  confronted  by  debts  amounting  to  over 
£20,000.  This  sum  he  had  to  make  good,  for  Congress 
was  unable  to  pay  it,  and  dallied  over  the  matter,  as  is 
customary  for  deliberative  bodies  on  too  many  occasions 
when  real  business  has  to  be  transacted.  Mr.  Ross  was  a 
man  of  great  intelligence,  and  enjoyed  the  friendship  of 
such  men  as  Washington,  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  Rob 
ert  Morris.  After  the  war  he  resumed  business  in  Phila 
delphia,  and  died  in  that  city  in  1800,  in  the  seventy-first 
year  of  his  age. 

Another  Scot  who  did  much  in  his  own  sphere  to  bring 
about  the  Revolution  was  William  Murdoch,  who  was 
born  at  Glasgow  in  1720.  He  came  to  America  with  his 
father,  the  Rev.  George  Murdoch,  when  that  gentleman 
was  appointed  Rector  of  Prince  George  County,  Mary 
land,  by  Lord  Baltimore.  William  was  a  member  of  the 
lower  house  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Maryland  from 
1745  till  1770,  and  was  determined  in  his  opposition  to  all 
tax  edicts  not  imposed  by  or  sanctioned  by  the  people. 
He  became  recognized  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
House,  and  it  was  mainly  through  him  that  it  was  placed 
so  clearly  on  record  on  the  popular  side.  In  the  resist 
ance  to  the  Stamp  act  he  was  particularly  conspicuous, 
arid  there  is  no  doubt  he  would  have  taken  the  field  to 
support  his  principles  had  he  not  died  in  1775,  just  as  the 
crisis  had  been  reached. 

Hitherto  we  have  been  dealing  with  honorable  men — 


128  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

men  who,  however  much  people  might  differ  with  them 
as  to  their  views  or  actions,  were  still  entitled  to  be  re 
spected  on  account  of  the  honesty  of  their  motives  and 
the  uprightness  of  their  conduct,  if  for  no  other  reasons. 
It  may  be  well,  therefore,  for  the  sake  of  variety  to  recall 
one  who  was  a  timeserver  and  traitor,  the  only  one  de 
serving  of  these  epithets  which  the  writer  of  this  book  has 
met.  with  (with  the  exception,  probably,  of  Gen.  Andrew 
Williamson,  who  for  his  dubious  conduct  at  Charleston 
and  elsewhere  was  called  "  the  Benedict  Arnold  of  the 
South,")  in  his  study  of  the  part  Scotsmen  took  in  the 
founding  of  America.  This  was  John  Allan,  a  native  of 
Edinburgh.  He  was  taken  to  Nova  Scotia  by  his  father 
when  only  three  years  of  age,  so  that  on  behalf  of  puir 
auld  Scotland  we  may  take  what  comfort  we  can  in  the 
reflection  that  the  good  influences  of  Auld  Reekie  did 
not  have  much  to  do  with  the  molding  of  his  character — 
a  fortunate  thing  for  the  reputation  of  Auld  Reekie.  John 
prospered  in  the  colony.  He  studied  law,  became  Clerk 
to  the  Supreme  Court,  and  from  1770  to  1776  was  a  mem 
ber  of  the  House  of  Assembly.  He  Mcd  with  the  Ameri 
cans  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  although  Nova  Scotia 
was  intense  in  its  loyalty,  and  he  used  his  position  to  aid 
the  Revolutionists  against  the  Home  and  Colonial  Gov 
ernments.  He  secretly  sent  them  information,  tried  to 
sway  over  the  Indians  to  their  side,  and  in  many  other 
ways  attempted  to  weaken  the  influences  which  held 
Nova  Scotia  aloof  from  the  Revolution,  and  all  the  while 
that  he  was  bound  by  his  oath  and  his  office  and  salary 
to  protect  British  and  Colonial  interests.  His  perfidy  was 
at  last  discovered,  and  he  found  it  expedient  to  fly  across 
into  Maine.  His  wife  was  imprisoned  by  the  authorities 
in  the  hope  of  learning  from  her  as  much  as  possible  of 
the  extent  of  his  machinations,  while  his  angry  neighbors 
burned  his  house  to  the  ground.  He  seems,  however, 
unlike  most  traitors,  to  have  been  very  well  repaid  for  his 
losses  and  troubles  by  those  to  whom  he  had  rendered  his 
foul  services.  In  1792  Massachusetts  gave  him  a  gift  of 
22,000  acres  of  land,  (on  part  of  which  the  town  of  Whit 
ing  now  stands,)  and  in  1801  Congress  granted  him  2,000 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  129 

acres  in  Ohio.  It  seems  impossible  to  say  a  word  in  favor 
of  this  man's  course.  Had  he  openly  avowed  his  attach 
ment  to  the  principles  of  the  Revolution  and,  like  the  he 
roes  of  that  struggle,  candidly  thrown  off  his  allegiance 
to  Britain,  no  stigma  could  have  attached  itself  to  his 
memory,  but  to  act  the  part  of  a  traitor  is  inexcusable. 
This  man,  in  a  minor  degree,  simply  played  the  part 
which  Benedict  Arnold  played,  and  deserves  to  be  held  in 
proportionate  contempt. 

Many  well-known  American  families  date  their  rise 
into  prominence  from  the  part  their  progenitors  on  this 
side  took  in  the  pre-Revolutionary  movement,  as  well  as 
in  the  struggle  itself,  and  several  of  them  can  trace  their 
descent  clearly  from  well-known  and  ancient  Scottish 
houses.  The  Rutherfurds,  for  instance,  are  descended  - 
from  Sir  John  Rutherfurd  of  Edgerston,  whose  eldest 
son  fought  in  America  in  1758,  and  was  killed  in  the  at 
tack  on  Ticonderoga  that  year,  and  through  him 
from  a  Bishop  of  Caithness,  from  whom  Sir  Walter 
Scott  claimed  descent.  The  late  Gen.  Winfield  Scott, 
who  was  in  command  of  the  American  Army  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  a  position  which  he 
attained  after  a  long  series  of  distinguished  services, 
and  from  which  he  retired  on  account  of  the  infirm 
ities  of  age,  was  the  grandson  of  a  Scot  who  fought 
for  Prince  Charlie  at  Culloden  and  was  glad  to  make 
his  escape  to  Virginia.  His  son,  the  General's  father, 
was  a  determined  advocate  of  separation  when  the 
crisis  came,  and  the  General  himself  lived  in  retirement 
until  May,  1866 — long  enough  to  learn  that  the  Nation 
had  emerged  from  the  greatest  civil  war  on  record,  with 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  still  the  flag  of  the  country  from 
the  lakes  to  the  Gulf.  Another  noted  and  earlier  warrior 
of  the  same  name  was  Gen.  John  Morin  Scott,  who  was 
born  in  America  in  1730  and  was  fourth  in  descent  from 
Sir  John  Scott  of  Ancrum,  one  of  the  first  baronets  of 
Nova  Scotia,  descended  in  his  turn  from  the  Scotts  of 
Balwearie — the  head  of  the  house.  Gen.  J.  Morin  Scott 
was  a  graduate  of  Yale  University,  and,  possessing  a 
ready  and  vigorous  pen,  used  it  with  marked  purpose  in 


130  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

assailing  the  measures  by  which  the  British  Government 
finally  drove  the  Colonies  into  armed  opposition.  He 
was  long  a  member — and  a  very  influential  one — of  the 
Provincial  Council  of  New  York,  and  in  1776,  having 
been  appointed  a  Brigadier  General,  he  fought  with  dis 
tinction  at  the  battle  of  Long  Island  and  elsewhere.  In 
1777  he  was  Secretary  of  State  for  New  York;  for  a  time 
he  was  at  the  head  of  a  Committee  of  Safety  when  the 
exigencies  of  the  struggle  left  the  Government  of  New 
York  in  a  chaotic  condition,  and  he  closed  a  memorable 
and  in  every  way  honorable  career  by  serving  in  Con 
gress  for  three  years.  He  retired  from  active  work  in 
1783,  died  a  year  later,  and  was  buried  in  Trinity  Church 
yard — the  historic  God's-acre  of  New  York. 

But  by  far  the  most  noted  of  the  Scottish  American 
families  of  the  Revolutionary  period  and  after,  from  a 
national,  State  and  municipal  point  of  view,  was  that  of 
the  Livingstons.  A  family  which  numbers  among  its 
members  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  old  Patroons,  a  Chan 
cellor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  a  Signer  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  a  Justice  of  the  United  States  Su 
preme  Court,  a  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  a 
Governor  of  New  Jersey,  besides  soldiers,  poets,  and 
statesmen  of  all  degrees,  is  surely  entitled  to  be  regarded 
as  pre-eminent.  A  volume  or  two  would  be  required  to 
relate  its  story,  and  in  this  place  there  is  no  opportunity 
for  doing  more  than  briefly  indicating  what  the  family 
has  done  to  mold  and  develop  the  great  republic  of  to 
day.  It  is  commonly  said  that  the  American  patriots  had 
no  fathers,  meaning  by  that,  of  course,  that  their  fathers 
were  of  the  commonplace  order  and  were  not  worth  men 
tioning  except  as  links  in  a  genealogical  chain,  of  no 
more  importance  than  the  links  in  the  chain  supporting 
a  gorgeous  badge  of  office  are  to  the  gorgeous  badge  it 
self.  But  the  Scotch  ancestor  from  whom  the  American 
Livingstons  sprung  had  a  life  history  as  interesting  as 
any  individual  who  ever  founded  a  family,  and  in  many 
\vays  more  important  than  most  others.  For  that  reason 
we  refer  to  it  here,  for,  although  John  Livingstone  of 
Ancrum  was  not  a  Scottish-American  and  never  saw 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  131 

America,  it  was  not  his  fault.  He  made  the  attempt  and 
the  elements  were  against  him.  It  is  difficult  to  learn 
much  about  the  progenitors  of  the  American  Revolution 
ary  heroes,  to  know  what  manner  of  men  they  were,  how 
far  their  careers  were  likely  to  influence  their  children, 
and  the  principles  which  animated  them  while  they  were 
engaged  in  the  battle  of  life.  But  the  character  of  the 
immediate  ancestor  of  the  American  Livingstons  is 
known  by  all  who  care  to  read  his  writings  or  study  the 
records  of  his  career  and  of  his  opinions,  which  he  himself 
and  others  have  handed  down  to  us.  In  him  we  find  all 
the  features  which  made  the  family  in  America  so  promi 
nent  in  public  life.  He  was  a  typical  Scotsman.  He  was 
steadfast,  brave,  outspoken,  yet  cautious.  He  stood  reso 
lutely  for  the  truth,  sacrificed  everything  rather  than  give 
up  his  convictions,  and  would  have  preferred  passing 
through  life  in  the  character  of  a  humble  but  devoted 
minister  of  the  Gospel  rather  than  that  of  the  public 
defender  of  a  principle  which,  in  the  long  run,  all  the 
machinery  and  power  of  the  Government  were  to  be  em 
ployed  to  crush  out.  His  own  ambition  was  to  remain  a 
minister — "  a  servant  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,"  as  he 
expressed  it.  Circumstances,  instead,  forced  him  to  be 
come  a  leader;  to  carry  on  what  has  been  called  the  evan 
gelical  succession  in  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  after  it  had 
been  in  the  hands  of  John  Knox,  Andrew  Melville,  and 
Alexander  Henderson. 

Robert  Livingston,  the  first  of  the  American  family 
and  the  youngest  son  of  this  patriot  preacher,  was  born 
in  the  manse  at  Ancrum  in  1654.  He  was  educated  in 
Holland,  with  the  view  of  following  a  commercial  career, 
and  left  that  country  for  America  about  a  year  after  his 
father's  death.  He  first  tried  Charleston,  but  soon  moved 
from  there  and  settled  in  New  York  State,  where  he  at 
once  entered  upon  a  successful  career.  In  1680  he  be 
came  Secretary  of  the  Commissaries  at  Albany,  made 
money  as  an  Indian  trader  and  in  practicing  law,  and  in 
1686  became  Town  Clerk  of  the  City  of  Albany,  a  posi 
tion  he  held  till  1721.  In  1686  he  received  from  Governor 
Dongan  a  large  tract  of  land  on  the  Hudson,  the.  begin- 


132  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

ning  of  the  vast  territorial  possessions  of  the  family,  and 
this  Colonial  grant  was  in  1/15  confirmed  by  royal  char 
ter  from  George  I.,  a  charter  which  conferred  manorial 
privileges  to  the  holder  of  the  estate.  He  served  in  the 
Colonial  Assembly  for  many  years,  and  was  once  Speak 
er  of  that  body.  He  had  the  Scotch  "  knack  "  of  holding 
on  to  whatever  he  acquired,  and  long  before  he  died,  in 
1725,  he  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  most 
influential  citizens  of  the  colony. 

Robert  Livingston  married  the  widow  (nee  Schuyler) 
of  a  minister,  a  member  of  the  Van  Rensselaer  family, 
and  this  union  brought  him  into  social  relations  with  the 
oldest  and  most  dignified  Knickerbocker  families  of  the 
colony.  By  her  he  had  three  sons  and  several  daughters. 
The  eldest  son,  Philip,  succeeded  to  the  principal  family 
possessions  and  added  to  them  mainly  by  his  success  as 
an  Indian  trader,  and  among  his  sons  was  Peter  Van 
Brugh  Livingston,  who  was  President  of  the  New  York 
Congress ;  Philip,  one  of  the  Signers  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  William,  Governor  of  New  Jersey. 
It  was  to  one  of  his  descendants  that  Robert  Fulton,  the 
engineer  and  steam  navigation  pioneer,  was  married — a 
marriage  to  which  was  due  the  necessary  financial  back 
ing  to  make  the  Clermont  a  success.  From  the  second 
son,  Robert,  who  acquired  the  estate  of  Clermont,  per 
haps  the  most  noted  branch  of  the  family  was  descended. 
His  son,  Judge  R.  R.  Livingston,  was  the  father  of  the 
famous  Chancellor  R.  R.  Livingston,  who  administered 
the  oath  of  office  to  George  Washington  on  the  latter's. 
taking  up  the  Presidency  in  accordance  with  the  voice  of 
the  people;  of  Henry  B.  Livingston,  who  was  one  of  the 
bravest  officers  in  the  Revolutionary  Army,  and  of  Edward 
Livingston,  Secretary  of  State  under  Andrew  Jackson,  and 
wrhose  services  in  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  are  still 
gratefully  remembered.  Edward  was  probably  the  ablest 
man  of  his  family  after  the  ancestor  of  Ancrum,  but  his 
life,  on  the  whole,  was  too  full  of  disappointments  to  be  a 
happy  one.  One  of  his  sisters  was  married  to  Gen.  Mont 
gomery  of  Quebec  fame,  another  to  Secretary  of  War 
Armstrong,  and  a  third  to  Gov.  Morgan  Lewis,  A  score 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  133 

or  more  names  of  other  American  descendants  of  the 
persecuted  Scotch  preacher  might  be  named  as  illustrious 
examples  in  various  and  honored  walks  in  life,  but 
enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the  influence  of  the 
humble  Scottish  manse  led  to  wonderful  lesults  in  the 
New  World.  Probably  no  family  on  record  ever,  had  so 
many  distinguished  representatives  within  the  space  of  a 
few  generations  as  that  of  this  branch  of  an  ancient 
Scotch  house. 

Before  leaving  the  Livingston  family  we  may  here  re 
call  the  stormy  career  of  Col.  James  Moncrieff,  who  was 
related  to  Gov.  William  Livingston  and  other  Ameri 
cans  by  marriage.  He  was  born  in  Fifeshire  about  1735 
and  was  educated  at  Woolwich  as  a  military  engineer, 
but  seems  to  have  faced  the  world  for  himself  in  the  ca 
pacity  of  Captain  of  a  privateer.  He  was  in  New  York 
when  the  Revolutionary  turmoil  culminated  in  hostilities, 
and  it  was  thought  that  he  would  throw  in  his  lot  with 
the  Colonists,  but  he  declined  to  throw  off  his  allegiance 
to  the  Crown.  In  1776  he  served  under  Lord  Percy  on 
Staten  Island,  and  two  years  later  was  taken  prisoner  at 
Flatbush,  L.  I.  Afterward  he  performed  valuable  serv 
ices  for  the  royal  forces  at  Savannah,  and  it  was  he  who 
planned  the  defensive  works  at  Charleston  when  the 
British  held  that  seaport.  He  was  commissioned  Lieutenr 
ant  Colonel  in  1780,  and  certainly  deserved  that  recogni 
tion  of  his  endeavors,  but  it  is  a  pity  that  his  memory 
should  be  tarnished  by  some  grave  charges  which  have 
never  been  satisfactorily  cleared  away — notably  one  of 
shipping  800  slaves  from  Charleston  to  the  West  Indies 
with  the  view  of  pocketing  by  the  sale  of  these  human 
beings.  He  certainly  was  a  brave  man  and  an  able  sol 
dier,  but  he  did  riot  seem  to  impress  his  military  supe 
riors  very  favorably  or  to  be  generally  well  liked.  Of  his 
closing  years  nothing  is  known  beyond  the  fact  that  he 
died  in  France  in  1793. 

On  the  sea  the  Scots  in  America,  although  by  no 
means  as  numerous  in  number  as  those  who  took  part  in 
the  stirring  events  on  shore,  won  equally  noteworthy  rec 
ords.  The  most  famous  of  these,  with  a  reputation  ex- 


134  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

tending  over  the  Old  World  as  well  as  the  New,  is  Paul 
Jones,  although  a  very  varied  estimate  of  his  character  is 
taken.  By  some  he  is  spoken  about  as  famous,  by  others 
as  notorious,  and  between  these  extremes  lie  very  con 
siderable  ground  for  argument  and  opinion.  Briefly 
summed  up,  his  career  was  as  follows:  He  was  born  at 
Arbigland,  Kirkcudbrightshire,  in  1/47,  the  son  of  a 
gardener  named  John  Paul,  after  whom  he  was  named. 
His  parents  were  poor,  but  they  kept  him  in  attendance 
at  the  parish  school  until  he  was  twelve  years  of  age,  long 
enough  to  give  him  a  good  rudimentary  education,  and 
then  he  was  sent  to  earn  his  own  living  as  a  sailor.  A 
year  later  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  for  the  first  time  and 
visited  an  elder  brother,  William,  who  had  settled  on  the 
banks  of  the  Rappahannock,  in  Virginia,  and  married  a 
Virginia  girl.  He  was  welcomed  there,  and  possibly  the 
kindly  reception  he  met  with  warmed  his  heart  to  Amer 
ica.  He  continued  in  the  merchant  service,  making  many 
voyages,  among  them  at  least  two  slave-catching  expedi 
tions,  until  1773,  when,  hearing  that  his  brother  had  died 
in  Virginia  childless  and  without  leaving  a  will,  he  has 
tened  there  to  settle  up  the  estate.  It  was  at  this  time 
that  for  some  reason  now  unknown  he  assumed  the  name 
of  Jones. 

He  seems  to  have  invested  his  means  in  Tobago  and 
to  have  soon  lost  everything  by  the  mismanagement  or 
dishonesty  of  agents  there.  Then  he  turned  planter  and 
hoped  to  devote  his  time  to  peaceful  pursuits.  But  soon 
the  rush  of  events  brought  the  Colonies  face  to  face  with 
the  mother  country,  and  Capt.  Jones,  as  he  was  called, 
espoused  the  popular  cause.  In  defending  his  position 
he  afterward  wrote:  "  I  was  indeed  born  in  Britain;  but 
I  do  not  inherit  the  degenerate  spirit  of  that  fallen  nation, 
which  I  at  once  lament  and  despise.  It  is  far  beneath  me 
to  reply  to  their  hireling  invectives.  They  are  strangers 
to  the  envied  approbation  that  greatly  animates  and  re 
wards  the  man  who  draws  his  sword  only  in  support  of 
the  dignity  of  freedom.  America  has  been  the  country  of 
my  fond  election  from  the  age  of  thirteen,  when  I  first 
saw  it.  I  had  the  honor  to  hoist,  with  my  own  hands, 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  135 

the  flag  of  freedom  the  first  time  it  was  displayed  on  the 
Delaware,  and  I  have  attended  it  with  veneration  ever 
since  on  the  ocean." 

This  raising  of  the  flag  occurred  on  the  Alfred,  one  of 
the  five  ships  which  constituted  the  American  Navy 
when  the  Revolutionary  War  broke  out.  Jones,  on  the 
first  sign  of  hostilities,  offered  his  services  to  the  Con 
gress,  and  he  was  appointed  First  Lieutenant  of  the 
Alfred.  The  details  of  his  naval  career  are  so  well  known, 
so  fully  recorded  even  in  American  school  histories,  that 
there  is  little  use  in  occupying  space  with  recording 
them  here.  They  prove  Jones  to  have  been  a  most  skill 
ful  seaman,  an  able  manager  of  men,  an  ingenious  tac 
tician,  and  a  brave  man.  In  the  course  of  it,  however, 
he  visited  his  birthplace  and  landed  a  force,  with  the  in 
tention,  according  to  his  own  letters,  of  capturing  Lord 
Selkirk  and  carrying  him  away  to  America  as  a  hostage. 
But  Lord  Selkirk  was  not  in  his  mansion,  and  the  sea 
men  had  to  content  themselves  with  robbing  the  premi 
ses  of  all  the  silver  plate  they  could  find.  This  adventure 
is  the  great  blot  upon  Paul  Jones's  character,  and  his 
correspondence  shows  that  he  saw  a  blunder  had  been 
made.  He  returned  the  plate,  or  as  much  of  it  as  he 
could,  after  a  time,  and  explained  his  motives.  It 
stamped  him,  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellow-countrymen  at 
home,  not  as  a  patriot  fighting  for  freedom,  but  as  a  pi 
rate  of  the  most  vulgar  and  mercenary  sort,  for  no  one 
with  any  spark  of  sentiment  would  have  wantonly  carried 
the  horrors  of  war  to  his  own  birthplace.  Besides,  he 
used  the  early  knowledge  he  had  obtained  of  St.  Mary's 
Isle  to  rob  the  place  of  its  treasure  chest.  However  the 
people  may  have  been  justified  in  their  views  of  the  ad 
venture  or  not,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Jones's  yarn  about' 
desiring  to  capture  Lord  Selkirk  is  a  very  improbable 
one,  for  Lord  Selkirk  was  too  unimportant  a  personage 
to  affect  in  any  way  the  conduct  of  the  war  or  to  bring 
about  any  wholesale  discharge  of  American  prisoners.  It 
seems  more  likely  that  Jones's  men  wanted  plunder  and 
he  took  them  where  he  knew  they  might  get  some  with 
the  utmost  ease,  and  in  a  place  which  he  was  perfectly 


136  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

aware  was  wholly  unprotected.  Then,  having  seen  the 
mistake  he  made,  he  tried  to  remedy  it  as  best  he  could. 
Lord  Selkirk  was  very  glad  to  get  back  as  much  of  his 
property  as  he  did,  but  that  did  not  alter  the  complexion 
of  the  affair  with  the  mass  of  the  people,and  Jones  was  re 
garded  by  his  brother  Scots  as  being  a  mercenary  cut 
throat  and  robber,  a  light  in  which  they  did  not  consider 
any  of  the  other  Scots  who  fought  against  King  George 
in  the  Revolution.  Jones's  subsequent  descents  on  the 
British  coast,  notably  his  proposed  capture  of  Edinburgh 
and  Leith  while  in  command  of  a  squadron  of  French 
ships  carrying  the  American  flag,  while  more  legitimate 
under  the  circumstances,  did  not  alter  this  popular  feel 
ing,  for  it  was  felt  that  he  might  have  left  puir  auld  Scot 
land  alone,  if  he  had  a  Scottish  heart  in  his  breast  at  all. 
However,  his  career  was  a  wonderful  one,  and  he  richly 
earned  the  honors  which  his  adopted  country  awarded 
him.  On  the  conclusion  of  the  war  Jones  attempted  to 
establish  a  fur  trade  between  the  American  Northwest 
territories  and  Japan  and  China,  but  the  scheme  fell 
through.  In  1787,  after  being  disappointed  in  hopes  of 
active  service  in  other  directions,  he  accepted  an  appoint 
ment  in  the  Russian  service,  and  took  a  prominent  part 
in  the  war  with  Turkey.  His  fortunes  seemed  to  rise  to 
their  highest  point  at  that  time,  but  he  was  the  victim 
of  intrigue  and  jealousy  on  the  part  of  others  who 
favored  the  course  of  the  Empress  Catherine,  and,  weary 
and  worn  out,  he  ultimately  resigned  from  her  service. 
Then  he  retired  to  Paris,  where,  after  a  long  illness,  he 
died  in  1789,  in  the  forty-fifth  year  of  his  age. 

How  a  man  could  pose  as  a  pure  devotee  of  freedom 
and  unsheath  his  sword  with  equal  readiness  in  the 
service  of  the  American  Congress,  and  of  that  aban 
doned,  cruel  wretch,  the  Empress  Catherine  II.  of  Rus- 
sit,  is,  it  seems  to  us,  a  conundrum  that  would  require 
a  good  deal  of  reasoning  to  demonstrate.  Except  for 
office,  there  was  nothing  to  attract  any  man  to  the  serv 
ice  of  the  Russian  autocrat,  least  of  all  one  who  avowed 
to  be  opposed  to  the  tyranny  of  Britain.  Nor  can  it  be 
pretended  that  the  campaign  he  waged  for  Catherine 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES.  137 

against  the  Turks  had  anything  to  do  with  liberty.  It 
was  simply  a  matter  of  position  and  pay.  He  forsook  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  and  all  that  glorious  ensign  meant  for 
the  world  and  talked  glibly  of  the  "  honor  of  the  Russian 
flag  and  the  interests  of  Her  (Russian)  Majesty." 

This,  however,  is  not  the  generally  prevailing  idea  of 
the  character  of  Paul  Jones.  A  recent  writer  puts  the 
popular  American  idea  very  clearly  as  follows: 

"  It  is  not  necessary  at  this  day  to  refute  the  slanders 
once  current  against  Paul  Jones;  but,  incredible  as  it 
may  seem,  within  the  last  ten  years  he  has  been  de 
scribed  in  popular  verse  as  a  notorious  pirate,  in  a  lead 
ing-  American  newspaper  as  a  privateer,  and  in  a  book 
alleged  to  be  for  the  instruction  of  American  youth  as 
a  'bold  marauder!'  This,  be  it  remembered,  applies  to 
a  man  who  headed  the  list  of  the  First  Lieutenants  ap 
pointed  in  the  navy  of  the  Colonies  on  Dec.  12,  1/755 
who  held  the  first  Captain's  commission  granted  under 
the  United  States,  Aug.  8,  1776;  who  was  made  the 
commanding  officer  of  all  American  ships  in  European 
waters  in  1778;  who  received  the  thanks  of  Congress  in 
1781 ;  who  was  unanimously  elected  by  Congress  to  be 
the  first  officer  of  the  American  Navy  in  1781,  and  who 
received  a  gold  medal  from  Congress,  similar  to  that 
given  to  Washington,  in  1787.  Moreover,  he  was  pre 
sented  with  a  gold  sword  by  Louis  XVI.  of  France,  and 
also  with  the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Order  of  Military  Merit, 
never  before  given  to  a  foreigner.  He  was  also  a  Rear 
Admiral  in  the  service  of  Russia,  and  received  the  Order 
of  St.  Anne  from  the  Empress  Catherine.  Greater  trib 
utes  than  any  foreign  honor  or  order  he  received  were 
the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  Washington,  and  the 
affection  felt  for  him  by  Franklin,  Morris,  Jefferson,  and 
Lafayette.  If  they  are  worthy  of  belief,  Paul  Jones  was 
an  unswerving  patriot,  and  a  very  great  man. 
He  served  with  the  utmost  distinction  in  the  Continental 
Navy,  but  without  pay  or  allowance.  The  British  Gov 
ernment  officially  declared  him  a  '  traitor,  pirate,  and 
felon,'  and  put  a  price  of  10,000  guineas  upon  his  head; 


138  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

but  he  was  no  more  a  traitor,  pirate,  or  felon  than  Wash 
ington  was,  or  any  other  man  who,  born  a  British  sub 
ject,  chose  to  throw  off  his  allegiance." 

We  fear  this  reasoning,  even  with  the  impartial  senti 
ment  which  prevails  in  these  later  days  of  peace  and 
good  will,  will  hardly  be  accepted.  There  is  a  wide  dif 
ference  between  the  cases  of  the  patriots  named  and  the 
case  of  Paul  Jones.  Washington,  Franklin,  and  Jeffer 
son,  although  originally  British  subjects,  were  born  in 
America.  Morris  was  by  birth  an  Englishman,  Lafayette 
a  Frenchman;  yet  neither  of  these  men  fired  a  shot 
against  the  countries  which  gave  them  birth.  We  can 
not,  reviewing  the  career  of  Paul  Jones,  regard  him  in 
the  light  of  a  disinterested  patriot,  nor  hold  him  up  to 
detestation  as  a  pirate  pure  and  simple.  He  was  simply 
a  maritime  Dugald  Dalgetty,  true  to  whatever  cause  he 
fought  for,  and,  naturally,  uttering  its  shibboleths  and 
upholding  its  right ;  but,  while  placing  this  estimate  upon 
his  worth,  we  cannot  ignore  the  fact,  even  if  we  wished  to 
ignore  it,  that  he  did  grand  service  to  the  young  re 
public  in  its  struggle  for  freedom  and  nationality. 

This  doughty  representative  of  auld  Scotia's  naval 
prowess,  when  all  is  said  on  the  subject,  has — justly  or 
unjustly — a  cloud  resting  on  his  fame,  and  so  it  may  be 
in  keeping  with  the  fitness  of  things  to  mention  one  or 
two  representatives  of  the  thistle  at  sea  on  whose  record 
no  one  has  ventured  to  cast  any  smirch,  for  the  best  of 
all  reasons — that  their  lives  were  above  reproach.  Few 
people  now  remember  anything  of  Admiral  Schank,  al 
though  he  was  a  man  of  unusual  prominence  in  his  day. 
He  was  born  at  Castlerig,  Kinghorn,  Fifeshire,  in  1740, 
and  was  a  cadet  of  the  family  of  Shank  of  Castelrig, 
which  received  its  territorial  possessions  from  a  grant  by 
King  Robert  the  Bruce.  Why  the  Admiral  changed  the 
spelling  of  his  name  is  not  known;  possibly  simply  on 
account  of  a  freak,  for  most  great  men  have  their  weak 
nesses.  In  early  life  he  learned  seamanship  on  a  mer 
chant  vessel,  but  he  entered  the  Royal  Navy  and  passed 
slowly  through  the  grades  of  promotion  till  he  attained 


REVOLUTIONARY     HEROES. 

the  rank  of  Second  Lieutenant.  His  first  position  of  im 
portance  was  that  of  senior  officer  of  the  naval  squadron 
at  St.  John,  N.  B.,  and  when  hostilities  were  rife  he  ren 
dered  good  service  to  the  Home  Government.  One  in 
stance  of  his  energy  that  attraced  general  attention  at 
the  time  was  in  connection  with  his  ship,  the  Inflexible. 
He  commenced  building  it  at  Quebec,  and  within  six 
weeks  from  the  day  its  first  timbers  were  laid  he  had 
built,  rigged,  completed  it  from  stem  to  stern,  put  her 
to  sea  and  won  a  battle  with  it.  He  fitted  out  several 
armaments  for  employment  on  the  great  lakes,  and  at 
one  time  had  four  dockyards  under  his  direction.  He  also 
distinguished  himself  in  Burgoyne's  campaign  in  1777, 
when  he  acted  in  the  capacity  of  engineer,  and  greatly 
facilitated  by  his  arrangements  the  movements  of  the 
troops.  When  peace  was  declared  he  returned  to  Britain 
and,  with  the  rank  of  Captain,  enjoyed  a  period  of 
leisure,  which  he  devoted  to  literary  studies  and  to 
the  development  of  theories  in  seamanship  which  his 
experience  had  suggested.  In  1793  he  published  a  treat 
ise  on  the  sailing  of  vessels  in  shallow  water  by  a  series 
of  sliding  keels  he  invented,  and  which  could  be  operated 
easily  by  means  of  some  mechanical  arrangements.  He 
also  contributed  several  valuable  papers  for  the  transac 
tions  of  the  Society  for  Improving  Naval  Architecture, 
of  which  he  was  one  of  the  founders.  He  held  several 
active  appointments  in  connection  with  his  profession 
before  being,  in  1805,  raised  to  the  rank  of  Rear  Admiral, 
and  he  afterward  received,  in  succession,  the  higher 
honors  of  Vice  Admiral  and  Admiral  of  the  Blue.  He 
died  at  Dawlish,  Devonshire,  in  1823,  leaving  behind 
him  a  record,  if  not  as  brilliant,  as  honorable  as  that  of 
any  other  name  on  the  long  roll  of  British  Admirals. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  Robert  R.  Randall,  the  founder 
of  the  noble  home  for  aged  seamen,  on  Staten  Island, 
known  as  Sailors'  Snug  Harbor,  was  the  son  of  a  Scottish 
merchant.  The  commonly  told  story  is  that  "  Thomas 
Randall,  a  thrifty  Scotchman  who  amassed  a  compe 
tence  as  an  '  honest  privateersman '  in  pre-Revolution- 


140  THE     SCOT    IN    AMERICA. 

ary  times,  and  whose  great  plantations  near  the  then 
Spanish  port  of  New-Orleans  were  used  as  the  store 
houses  for  the  products  of  his  enterprise  as  a  bold  buc 
caneer,  followed  the  example  of  the  rude  forefathers  of 
his  hamlet — in  short,  died,  leaving  to<  his  '  only '  son, 
Robert  Richard,  his  vast  possessions  and  remorse."  The 
remorse  feature  of  the  story  is  the  only  thing  that  ele 
vates  the  character  of  Randall  above  that  of  the  one  com 
monly  ascribed  to  Capt.  Kidd.  Gov.  Trask,  however, 
who,  as  the  executive  head  of  the  Snug  Harbor,  has  in 
vestigated  the  career  of  the  founder's  father,  says  that 
instead  of  being  a  pirate  and  all  that  the  name  implies, 
Thomas  Randall  was  a  well-known  American  patriot,  a 
member  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred  in  1785,  one 
of  the  original  founders  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  and  the  first  President  of  the  Marine  So 
ciety  of  the  Port  of  New  York,  an  organization  which 
had  for  its  object  '  the  relief  of  indigent  and  distressed 
masters  of  vessels,  their  widows  and  orphan  children.' 
Thomas  Randall  was  for  many  years  intimately  connect 
ed  through  ties  of  friendship  and  business  with  Alexander 
Hamilton,  the  great  soldier-lawyer-financier  of  the  Col 
onies,  and  it  is  recorded  that  Randall  and  Hamilton  had 
built  and  fitted  out,  at  their  own  expense,  {.he  vessel 
which  conveyed  Gen.  Washington  from  Elizabethport  to 
New  York  on  his  journey  to  the  first  inauguration. 

Capt.  Trask  has  taken  a  great  deal  of  pains  to  solve 
the  question  of  Thomas  Randall's  birth,  but  without  suc 
cess.  "  If  a  Scotsman,"  he  says,  "  he  must  have  come 
to  this  country  when  young,  as  at  the  age  of  twenty-five 
he  appears  to  have  been  a  shipmaster  and  in  command 
of  the  American  brigantine,  The  Fox!"  The  son,  how 
ever,  bequeathed  his  means  unto  a  charity  which  has 
proved  of  practical  service  to  the  class  for  whom  it  was 
intended,  and,  in  the  absence  of  proof  to  the  contrary,  we 
feel  justified  in  claiming  Thomas  Randall  as  a  Scot  on 
the  strength  of  the  tradition.  Such  institutions  have  ever 
been  favorite  ones  with  Scotsmen  of  means,  and  perhaps 
it  may  have  been  one  of  the  dreams  of  Thomas  Randall 
to  found  such  a  home,  a  dream  made  a  reality  by  his  son. 


CHAPTER  V. 

MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS. 

NO  class  of  men  have  done  more  to  direct  public 
opinion  and  conserve  public  morals  in  North  America 
than  the  preachers  of  the  Gospel  who  have  settled  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada  from  Scotland.  In  speaking 
of  the  Scotch  clergy  on  this  continent,  and  particularly  in 
the  United  States,  we  generally  think  of  them  as  Pres 
byterians.  The  majority  of  them  certainly  were,  and 
are,  of  the  Kirk  of  John  Knox,  but  we  also  find  them 
in  all  denominations,  Episcopalian  and  Baptist,  Method 
ist  and  Roman  Catholic.  Indeed,  one  of  the  Bishops  of 
the  latter  Church  in  the  United  States  who  died  a  year 
or  two  ago  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  and  as  proud  of 
the  fact  as  he  was  of  his  crozier.  Presbyterianism,  how 
ever,  is  so  much  associated  with  the  history  of  Scotland 
that  when  we  speak  of  a  Scottish  clergyman  in  America 
he  is  generally  supposed  to  be  a  Presbyterian — until  the 
contrary  is  made  known.  Then,  many  Scotch  preachers 
ordained  in  some  one  of  the  Presbyterian  denomina 
tions  in  Scotland  become  Congregationalists  when  they 
reach  America,  believing  that  that  form  of  Church  gov 
ernment  is  mote  suited  to  the  requirements  of  the  coun 
try  than  any  other,  and  many  have  found  in  the  pulpit  of 
the  Reformed  Dutch  Church  a  haven  from  which  they 
could  preach  the  Word.  Such  changes  may,  of  course, 
be  made  without  sacrificing  one  iota  of  the  preachers' 
early  notions  of  the  unity  of  the  denomination  and  the 
inter-dependence  of  individual  congregations  taught  in 
the  policy  and  practice  of  the  religious  organization  un- 
141 


4- 


142  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

der  which  their  fathers  had  worshipped,  and  in  which 
they  themselves  had  been  trained  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry. 

Sometimes  we  read  of  a  Scotsman  who  crossed  the 
Atlantic  to  further  the  views  of  his  denomination  as  a 
missionary,  and  of  this  the  history  of  the  Quakers  has 
already  furnished  us  with  several  examples.  Sometimes 
the  head  and  front  of  a  new  denomination  settles  in 
America,  hoping  in  a  new  country  to  find  men  ready  to 
change  the  views  they  had  previously  held,  or  at  least  so 
open  to  conviction  as  to  hold  out  some  hope  in  the  wa> 
of  making  converts.  This  was  the  case  with  Robert  San- 
deman.  He  was  born  at  Perth  in  1718,  and  after  a  short 
university  course  at  Edinburgh  entered  into  commercial 
life  in  the  linen  trade.  He  married  the  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  John  Glas,  minister  of  Tealing,  near  Dundee,  whose 
views  against  a  national  church  and  other  matters  led  to 
his  deposition  and  to  the  founding  of  a  new  sect — the 
Glassjt.es.  Sandeman  not  only  adopted  his  father-in-law's 
views,  but  reduced  them  to  a  system.  The  Glassites  had 
some  peculiar  views  on  church  government,  and  were 
pronounced  against  all  State  connection  with  religion. 
They  did  not  believe  that  their  spiritual  teachers  should 
be  set  apart,  or  that  they  should  contract  second  mar 
riages,  or  that  prayer  should  be  promiscuous.  They  had 
love  feasts — real  feasts — celebrated  the  Lord's  Supper 
every  Sabbath,  interpreted  the  Scriptures  literally,  disap 
proved  of  eating  animals  that  had  been  strangled,  and 
adopted  such  minor  matters  as  washing  the  feet  of  broth 
er  disciples  and  implanting  the  kiss  of  charity,  and 
many  other  views  \vhich  drove  them  apart  from  the  other 
communities  into  which  the  religious  world  of  Scotland 
was  divided.  Sandeman  became  what  might  be  called 
the  evangelist  of  the  new  church,  and  was  instrumental 
in  organizing  in  connection  with  it  many  congregations, 
not  only  in  Scotland,  but  in  London,  Newcastle,  and 
other  English  towns.  In  1764,  leaving  Mr.  Glas  to 
watch  over  the  denomination  at.  home,  Sandeman  crossed 
to  Boston  and  founded  a  church  there,  the  body  being 
known  in  America  by  his  name — Sandemanians.  He  also 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  143 

established  a  church  at  Danbury,  Conn.,  and  congrega 
tions  elsewhere,  but  the  progress  of  the  movement  was 
hampered  by  the  uncertain  political  conditions  which  be 
gan  to  prevail,  and  Sandeman  suffered  many  disappoint 
ments.  He  died  at  Danbury  in  1771.  Probably  not 
more  than  5,000  persons  in  America  could  then  have 
been  regarded  as  adherents  to  Sandeman's  views,  and 
after  his  death  that  number  began  steadily  to  decrease,  al 
though,  to  a  small  extent,  they  are  still  represented  in 
American  denominational  lists.  During  the  Revolution 
ary  War  they  were  noted  for  their  loyalty  to  Britain,  and 
that  fact  alone  kept  them  from  winning  the  amount  of  at 
tention  which  their  earnestness,  their  charity,  and  their 
striving  after  pure  Christianity  entitled  them. 

Another  worker  in  a  new  sect — a  sect,  however,  whose 
purpose  was  to  unite  all  the  sects,  with  the  Bible  as  the 
sole  bond  of  union,  was  Walter  Scott,  who,  it  has  been 
claimed  by  some  of  his  admirers,  could  claim  kinship 
with  the  "  Author  of  Waverley."  He  was  born  in  the 
now  popular  and  pleasant  town  of  Moffat  in  1796.  He 
landed  in  the  United  States  in  1818  and  became  acquaint 
ed  with  Thomas  and ...  Alexander  Campbell,  father  and 
son,  two  Irishmen  who  had  the  courage  to  think  out  re 
ligious  problems  for  themselves.  For  Alexander  Camp 
bell,  Scott  conceived  a  warm  friendship,  and  the  views  of 
the  Disciples  of  Christ,  as  the  holders  of  the  Campbellite 
doctrines  were  called,  found  in  him  a  devoted  believer. 
As  a  preacher,  Scott  exhibited  such  oratorical  powers  that 
he  became  recognized  as  a  leader  in  the  new  ranks,  and 
his  writings  formed  a  feature  for  years  in  Alexander 
Campbell's  paper,  "  The  Christian  Baptist."  The  sect 
thus  founded  spread  rapidly  over  many  sections  of  the 
United  States,  and  it  has  churches  in  various  parts  of  the 
world.  Its  vitality  seems  to  increase  with  the  passing  of 
time — the  great  wrecker  of  so  many  sects — and  it  now  has 
over  2,000  ministers  and  some  2,500  churches.  For  much 
of  this  popularity  the  labors  of  Walter  Scott  must  receive 
credit,  for  in  the  work  of  the  organization  he  seemed 
never  to  tire.  Just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of  the 
rebellion,  as  might  be  expected  from  one  holding  such 


144  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

broad,  simple  views  of  Christian  life,  he  spoke  against  an 
appeal  to  arms,  and  in  a  pamphlet  called  "  The  Union," 
issued  in  1861,  a  short  time  before  his  death,  he  uttered  a 
ringing  protest  against  the  impending  conflict.  Words, 
however,  by  that  time  were  of  no  avail — affairs  had  passed 
that  stage,  and  the  bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter  an 
nounced  the  beginning  of  one  of  the  most  appalling  of 
modern  wars.  Scott  was  then  in  infirm  health,  and  the 
grief  which  the  news  of  the  doings  at  Sumter  occasioned 
hastened  the  end,  and  closed  in  gloom  a  life  that  had 
been  spent  in  trying  to  infuse  light  and  joy  through  the 
.world.  He  died  at  Mayslick,  Ky.,  in  1861. 

Sometimes  we  find  Scotsmen  among  the  pioneers  or 
active  workers  in  fields  that  are  neither  orthodox  nor  es 
tablished,  seekers  after  something  new,  as  zealous  as  the 
typical  Yankee.  Even  in  the  ranks  of  the  Mormon  El 
dership  the  ubiquitous  Scot  can  be  found,  and  those  of 
them  we  have  met  have  displayed  the  greatest  earnest 
ness  in  their  work  and  expressed  a  most  complete  belief 
in  the  righteousness  of  the  doctrines  held  by  that  people. 
So,  too,  in  the  circles  of  the  Spiritualists  and  such-like 
"  new-fangled  "  folks,  Scotsmen  seem  to  hold  prominent 
rank.  The  most  noted  of  all  the  modern  Spiritualists 
was  David  Douglas  Home,  who  was  born,  in  Edinburgh 
in  1833  and  died  in  Paris — a  lunatic — in  1886.  He  settled 
in  America  in  1840,  and  at  the  age  of  seventeen  blossomed 
out  into  a  medium.  His  life  may  generally  be  classed 
as  that  of  an  adventurer,  with  his  fame  as  a  spiritualist 
as  its  foundation,  while  as  the  prototype  of  Browning's 
study  of  "  Mr.  Sludge,  the  Medium,"  he  even  found  a 
place  in  poetry.  His  spiritualistic  performances  were  re 
markable,  whatever  way  we  may  look  at  them,  and 
included  all  sorts  of  manifestations.  Home  had  a 
career  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  America.  In  1858, 
while,  in  St.  Petersburg,  he  married  a  Russian  lady  of 
rank.  He  joined  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  but  was 
expelled  for  some  of  his  manifestations.  In  London  he 
was  one  of  the  curiosities  of  the  capital  for  several  \ears, 
and,  his  wife  having  died  in  1862,  he  married  again — 
this  time  also  a  Russian  lady  of  noble  birth — in  1872.  He 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.          145 

wrote  a  number  of  works  on  spiritualism,  and  certainly 
made  many  converts  to  his  peculiar  views. 

If,  however,  we  want  to  measure  fully  the  influence 
which  Scotland's  clergy  have  had  upon  America,  we  need 
look  no  further  than  to  the  history  of  Presbyterianism  in 
the  United  States.  It  is  not  much  more  than  a  century 
ago  that  the  first  General  Assembly,  with  its  17  Presby 
teries  and  1 80  ministers,  met  in  Philadelphia.  Now  there 
is  hardly  a  town  in  the  country  where  at  least  one  church 
belonging  to  the  denomination  is  not  to  be  found,  while 
its  array  of  colleges,  its  missionary  operations,  and  the 
extent  and  variety  of  its  evangelistic  work,  make  the 
American  Presbyterian  Church,  North  as  well  as  South, 
one  of  the  most  active  agents  in  the  modern  religious 
world.  In  the  early  history  of  the  country  Scotch  Presby 
terianism  was  even  a  much  more  pronounced  factor  in  its 
religious  and  moral  development,  despite  its  comparative 
meagreness  of  workers,  adherents,  and  means,  than  now, 
and  one  authority  says  that  two-thirds  of  the  Presbyter 
ian  ministers  in  America,  prior  to  1738,  were  graduates 
of  Glasgow  University.  In  the  first  Presbytery  meeting, 
at  Philadelphia,  in  or  about  1700,  there  were  seven  minis 
ters,  and  two  of  these,  Nathaniel  Taylor  and  Jolin  Wil 
son,  were  natives  of  Scotland,  three  belonged  to  the 
North  of  Ireland  and  were  of  Scotch  descent  and  educa 
tional  training,  and  one  was  a  native  of  New-England, 
of  whose  education  and  ancestry  nothing  seems  to  be 
known.  Thus,  six  of  this  pioneer  band  of  seven  owed  to 
Scotland  the  grit  and  fidelity  of  purpose  that  enabled 
them  to  assume  the  dangers  and  hardships  of  pioneer 
life.  One  of  these  Irish  Scots,  the  Rev.  Francis  Makem- 
ie,  a  graduate  of  Glasgow  University,  is  credited  with 
being  the  founder  of  Presbyterianism  in  America,  hav 
ing  organized  a  church  at  Snow  Hill,  Md.,  in  1684,  with 
the  aid  of  his  trusted  Scotch  elder,  Adam  Spence.  A 
claim  for  priority  is  also-  made  for  a  church  at  Hemp- 
stead,  which  was  founded  in  1644  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Den- 
ton,  a  Presbyterian  preacher  from  England,  but  Dentoii 
should  rather  be  placed  under  the  general  head  of 
Nonconformist,  and  as  we  judge  from  the  story  of  his 


146  THE    SCOT   IN   AMERICA. 

ministry  at  Hempstead,  the  church  he  founded  was  a 
Congregational  rather  than  a  Presbyterian  institution. 
Makemie  not  only  founded  one  church,  but  four  others, 
within  comparatively  easy  reach  of  Snow  Hill,  and  did 
not  rest  content  until  he  had  the  churches  he  founded 
and  those  of  other  pioneers  organized  into  a  Presbytery, 
and  with  the  organization  of  that  body  began,  really,  the 
history  of  Presbyterianism  in  America.  In  1716  the  first 
Synod,  constituted  by  four  Presbyteries,  was  held  in  the 
"  City  of  Brotherly  Love,"  and  in  1789  the  organization 
of  the  Church  was  completed  by  the  meeting  of  a  Gen 
eral  Assembly.  No  better  or  more  inspiring  "  visible 
sign "  of  Scotland's  influence  upon  America  is  to  be 
found  than  in  the  growth  and  present  wide-reaching 
influence  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  all  its  branches 
on  the  continent. 

But  under  whatever  denominational  flag  the  Scotch 
preachers  in  America  have  enrolled  themselves,  their 
influence  has  been,  with  very  few  and  very  far-separated 
exceptions,  for  good  in  their  ministerial  relations,  while 
as  citizens  they  have  been  ever  active  and  practical  in 
manifesting  how  the  duties  of  honest,  upright,  loyal  citi 
zenship  should  be  considered  and  performed.  F.ven  as 
far  back  as  the  time  of  the  Revolution  there  is  abundant 
evidence  to  show  that  they  were  fast  in  their  loyalty, 
whether  their  sentiments  caused  them  to  remain  faithful 
to  King  George  or,  as  was  more  generally  the  case,  their 
convictions  impelled  them  to  transfer  their  loyalty  to  the 
Continental  Congress.  The  leading  characteristic  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  Scottish- American  preachers  in  the 
past  seems  to  have  been  their  intense  earnestness,  their 
undoubted  sincerity.  They  had  the  national  dourness, 
the  argumentative  disposition  of  many  of  their  country 
men,  and  several  of  them  were  led  into  uncongenial  posi 
tions — to  change  even  from  one  denomination  into  an 
other  in  the  hope  of  finding  more  freedom  for  their  views 
or  more  peace  for  the  current  of  their  daily  lives;  but 
over  all,  as  we  study  the  careers  of  these  preachers,  or 
such  of  them,  rather,  as  we  have  been  privileged  to  read 
about,  we  find  one  grand  principle  ever  sustaining  and 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  147 

inspiring-  them — that  of  performing  faithfully  the  com 
mission,  as  they  conceived  it,  which  the  Master  had 
given  them  to  do.  A  recent  writer  in  a  religious  paper 
has  estimated  that  among  the  foreign  ministers  who 
have  preached  in  this  country  from  its  beginning1  some 
3,000  have  hailed  from  Scotland.  We  do  not  know  how 
the  writer  arrived  at  his  figures,  but  we  think  his  estimate 
rather  under  than  above  the  mark.  With  his  calcula 
tion,  however,  assumed  as  correct,  it  can  be  understood 
that  all  types  of  good  men  are  contained  among  the 
host. 

One  of  the  most  famous  of  the  early  Scotch  ministers 
to  visit  America  was  the  Rev.  William  Dunlop,  who 
afterward  became  Principal  of  Glasgow  University.  He 
was  the  son  of  a  minister  in  Paisley,  was  graduated  at 
the  University  of  Glasgow,  and  in  1679  obtained  his 
license  as  a  preacher.  The  year  1679,  however,  was  a 
distracting-  one  in  the  history  of  the  Scottish  Kirk,  for 
*in  it  were  fought  the  battles  of  Drumclog  and  Bothwell 
Bridge.  In  May  of  that  year  Archbishop  Sharp  met  his 
death  by  violence  on  Magus  Moor,  near  St.  Andrews, 
and  the  Covenanters  were  persecuted  with  the  most 
fiendish  cruelty.  Dunlop,  naturally,  was  on  the  perse 
cuted  side,  and  was  active  in  the  movements  against  the 
vState  enactments,  and  to  escape  from  the  dangers  to 
which  he  was  exposed  he  joined  a  party  which  was 
formed  to  cross  the  Atlantic,  and  he  settled  in  South 
Carolina.  There  he  resided,  preaching  and  teaching  until 
1690.  He  was  highly  esteemed,  and  doubtless  had  he 
remained  in  America  would  have  attained  an  influential 
position  in  the  ministry,  but  he  looked  upon  himself  sim 
ply  as  an  exile,  his  heart  yearned  for  home,  and  less  than 
two  years  after  the  Revolution  brought  peace  to  Scot 
land  he  was  again  in  his  native  land.  He  was  at  once 
appointed  by  King-  William  Principal  of  Glasgow  Uni 
versity,  and  held  that  position  until  his  death.  He  had 
married  in  early  life  Sarah,  sister  of  the  famous  Principal 
Carstairs,  "  the  Cardinal  "  of  King-  William's  Court,  and 
she  accompanied  him  to  South  Carolina,  and  there  their 
eldest  son,  Alexander,  was  born  in  1684.  He  went  to 


148  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Scotland  with  his  parents  in  1690,  and  ultimately  became 
Professor  of  Greek  in  the  University  of  Glasgow,  and 
was  regarded  as  the  foremost  teacher  of  that  language 
of  his  time. 

A  preacher  much  more  actively  identified  with  the 
history  of  Presbyterianism  in  America  was  the  Rev. 
George  Gillespie,  who  was  born  near  Stirling  in  1683, 
and,  after  being  educated  in  Glasgow  University,  was 
licensed  as  a  preacher  in  1712.  In  that  same  year  he 
arrived  in  Boston  with  a  highly  commendatory  letter 
from  Principal  Stirling  of  Glasgow  to  Dr.  Cotton  Mather 
and  was  soon  placed  in  charge  of  the  church  at  Wood- 
bridge,  N.  J.  He  remained  there  only  a  short  time,,  as, 
toward  the  close  of  1713,  he  was  ordained  minister  of 
White  Clay  Creek,  Del.  There  he  became  one  of  the 
busiest  men  in  the  Church,  for  he  had  several  preach 
ing  stations  to  attend  to,  and  he  spared  neither  time 
nor  labor  in  the  faithful  discharge  of  his  duties  to  each. 
He  was  a  noted  leader  in  the  controversies  which  had 
sprung  up  in  the  Church  and  which  resulted,  in  1741,  in 
a  memorable  secession.  As  a  writer  his  pen  was  particu 
larly  ready  not  only  in  forwarding  his  own  views,  but  in 
advocating  tolerance  for  the  views  of  others.  His  trea 
tise  "  Against  Deists  and  Freethinkers,1'  published  at 
Philadelphia  in  1735,  was  an  able  argument  against  such 
heresies,  and  in  considering  the  events  of  his  somewhat 
bitter  controversial  career  we  read  with  a  smile  his  "  Ser 
mons  against  Divisions  in  Christ's  Churches  "  when  we 
remember  that  they  were  issued  in  New  York  in  1740, 
just  as  an  impending  schism  was  about  to  distract  the 
energies  of  the  Church — a  schism  which,  in  a  manner 
natural  in  a  Scotsman,  he  had  a  considerable  share  in 
bringing  about.  Mr.  Gillespie  died  in  1760. 

A  contemporary  of  Mr.  Gillespie  who  was  also  noted 
as  a  controversialist,  but  of  a  less  bitter  type,  was  the 
Rev.  Alexander  Garden,  who  was  born  at  Edinburgh  in 
1685  and  settled  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  in  1719  as  rector  of 
St.  Philip's  (Episcopal)  Parish.  From  the  first  he  was  a 
success  in  the  work  of  the  ministry,  and  he  soon  be 
came  noted  as  a  leader  in  local  religious  circles.  He 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  14Q 

brought  about  a  series  of  annual  meetings  of  the  clergy 
in  and  around  Charleston,  and  by  that  means  alone  did 
a  great  amount  of  practical  good,  but  his  great  claim  to 
kindly  remembrance  lies  in  the  interest  he  took  in  the 
education  and  religious  instruction  of  the  negroes.  In 
1740  he  entered  into  a  controversy  with  the  famous 
George  Whitefield  which  attracted  much  attention  all 
over  the  country.  His  arguments  against  the  famous 
Apostle  of  Methodism  were  printed  under  the  title  of 
"  Six  Letters  to  the  Rev.  George  Whitefield  "  and  had  a 
wide  circulation,  and  he  also  published  a  few  of  his  ser 
mons — able,  orthodox,  and  practical  discourses — which 
are  much  superior  to  the  ordinary  run  of  such  produc 
tions.  Mr.  Garden  was  a  most  enthusiastic  Scot,  and 
his  name  appears  among  the  members  of  the  St.  An 
drew's  Society  of  Charleston,  the  oldest  organization  of 
that  name  in  America.  In  1754  he  resigned  his  pastorate 
on  account  of  ill-health,  to  the  general  regret  of  the  peo 
ple  of  Charleston,  irrespective  of  denominational  differ 
ences,  and  was  presented  with  a  valuable  service  of  plate. 
He  died  two  years  later.  His  son,  Alexander,  who  was 
born  at  Edinburgh  in  1713,  became  famous  as  a  physi 
cian  and  botanist.  In  1754  he  was  elected  Professor  of 
Botany  in  Kings  (Columbia)  College,  and  maintained  an 
extensive  correspondence  with  European  scientists,  in 
cluding  Linnaeus,  who  named  the  genus  Gardenia  in  his 
honor.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out,  Prof.  Garden 
retained  his  loyalty,  lost  everything  he  possessed,  and 
was  glad  to  escape  to  England,  where  he  died  in  1791. 
As  another  evidence  of  how  that  war  separated  families 
we  may  state  that  Prof.  Garden's  son,  Alexander,  who 
was  born  at  Charleston  in  1757  and  died  in  1829,  served 
in  the  Revolutionary  Army  as  aide  to  Gen.  Greene  and 
as  an  officer  in  Lee's  legion.  For  his  services,  his  father's 
property,  or  most  of  it,  was  given  to  him,  and  he  was 
justly  esteemed  by  his  companions  in  the  army.  This 
warrior  also  inherited  the  literary  tastes  so  noted  in  his 
family,  and  his  work  entitled  "  Anecdotes  of  the  Revolu 
tion  and  Sketches  of  Its  Characters  "  was  very  popular 
when  first  issued,  and  has  several  times  been  reprinted, 


150  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

A  stormy,  turbulent,  unsatisfactory  career  was  that  of 
George  Keith,  a  Presbyterian,  Quaker,  and  Episcopalian, 
by  turns,  who  was  born  in  Aberdeen  in  1645.  It  ig  pos 
sible  thatj  he  was  a  brother  of  the  Rev.  James  Keith,  a 
worthy  Aberdonian,  who  settled  at  Boston  about  1662, 
and  from  1664  till  his  death  in  1719  was  the  honored 
minister  of  a  Congregational  church  at  Bridgewater, 
Mass.;  but  this  is  only  a  surmise,  for  Keiths  were  and 
are  as  plentiful  around  "  the  City  of  Bon-Accord  "  as 
blackberries  on  a  hedge.  George  Keith  was  originally  a 
Presbyterian,  and  was  educated  at  Marischal  College, 
Aberdeen,  where  he  formed  a  strong  friendship  for  a 
fellow-student,  Gilbert  Burnet,  who  afterward  became 
famous  as  Bishop  of  Salisbury  and  as  a  historian.  The 
two  entertained  the  warmest  regard  for  each  other 
throughout  their  lives.  After  graduating,  Keith  left  the 
Presbyterian  fold  and  joined  the  Society  of  Friends. 
Shortly  afterward  he  was  induced  by  the  leading  Quakers 
in  Aberdeen  to  emigrate  to  America,  with  the  view  not 
only  of  bettering  his  own  temporal  condition,  but  of 
helping  to  spread  their  doctrines  in  the  New  World.  He 
arrived  at  New  York  in  1684,  and  for  some  four  years 
was  Surveyor  in  New  Jersey.  In  1689  ne  removed  to 
Philadelphia,  where  he  conducted  a  Friends'  school,  but 
that  occupation  was  far  too  quiet  and  monotonous  to 
suit  his  disposition,  and  he  soon  gave  it  up.  He  started 
to  travel  in  New  England,  like  a  Quaker  Don  Quixote, 
to  win  people  to  the  views  of  the  Society,  and  he  was  at 
once  engaged  in  a  bitter  series  of  controversies  with 
Increase  Mather,  Cotton  Mather,  and  others.  He  did 
not  by  his  journey  add  much  to  the  numerical  strength 
of  his  adopted  people,  and  when  he  returned  to  Phila 
delphia  he  even  managed,  without  loss  of  time,  to  quar 
rel  with  the  Friends  there.  This  quarrel  seems  to  have 
been  due  to  his  own  temper,  to  his  sense  of  disappoint 
ment,  to  his  disposition  to  escape  from  the  leveling  ten 
dencies  of  the  teachings  of  the  Society,  and  to  some  pe 
culiar  innovations  he  advocated,  and  which  none  of  the 
brethren  seemed  disposed  to  listen  to.  Then  he  went 
to  England,  and  laid  his  whole  case  before  William 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  151 

Penn,  but  that  leader  denounced  him   as   an   apostate, 
and  Keith  was   excommunicated  from  the   Society,   as 
completely  as  the  gentle  Quakers  could  excommunicate 
anybody.     Then  he  founded  a  religious  denomination  of 
his  own,  which  he  called  the  Christian  or  Baptist  Quak 
ers,   (popularly  called  the  Keithians,)  and  in  which  he 
had   a   chance   for   ventilating   some   original   views   he 
held  on  the  millennium  and  concerning  the  transmigra 
tion  of  souls.     The   Keithians,   however,   did  not  hold 
long  together,  and  in  1702  its  founder  was  a  full-fledged 
and   enthusiastic   minister   of  the    Church   of    England. 
Here,  probably  because  years  had  softened  the  natural 
contentiousness  of  his   dispositon,  or  the  Church  itself 
allowed  more  latitude  for  individual  views   on  various 
matters,  he  found  peace.     Nay,  more,  he  found  an  op 
portunity  for   repaying  the   Society   of   Friends   for  its 
rather  summary  treatment  of  him.     He  was  sent  as  a 
missionary  to  Pennsylvania  and   New-Jersey,  with  the 
view  of  converting,  or  perverting,  as  many  Quakers  as 
possible,  and  used  to  boast  that  in  that  expedition  some 
seven  hundred  Friends  were  by  his  instrumentality  re 
ceived  into  communion  with  the  English  Church.  Soon 
after  his  return  to  England  he  was  appointed  Vicar  of 
Edburton,  in  Essex,  and  in  that  beautiful  parish  his  de 
clining  years  were  spent  in  tranquillity.     Keith  was  a 
man  of  decidedly  superior  cast  of  intellect,  an  eloquent 
and  attractive  speaker  and  preacher,  an  able  and  ready 
conversationist,    and,    but    for   his    choleric    disposition, 
would  have  lived  a  life  of  more  than  ordinary  useful 
ness,  and  might  even  have  attained  to  real  power  and 
eminence.     He  was  a  voluminous  writer,  and  in  the  fifty 
or   so  volumes    (some   in   bulky   quarto)    or   pamphlets 
which  we   know  to   have   come   from   his   pen,   we   can 
trace  the  current  of  his  religious  views  through  all  their 
changes.     He  appears  in  them  all  to  have  been  singu 
larly  honest,  made  no  attempt  to  conceal  or  belittle  his 
own  changes,  and  even  published  retractions  of  his  own 
published  writings.     His  later  works  were  mainly  taken 
up  with  what  he  regarded  as  the  fallacies  of  Quakerism, 
and  he  attacked  the  Society  of  Friends  from  every  point 


152  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

of  view  and  with  the  utmost  savagery  and  unrelenting- 
acerbity. 

It  is  relief  to  turn  from  the  waywardness  of  this  tur 
bulent  character  to  the  life  of  quiet  consistency  which  is 
exemplified  in  the  career  of  one  of  the  most  useful  min 
isters  who  ever  occupied  a  New  York  pulpit,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Archibald  Laidlie.  He  was  a  native  of  Kelso,  and 
preached  his  first  sermon  in  this  city  in  1764.  He  joined 
the  St.  Andrew's  Society  a  year  later,  a  sufficient  evi 
dence  that  he  was  not  forgetful  of  his  native  land.  Mr. 
Laidlie  had  previously  been  pastor  for  four  years  of  the 
Scotch  Church  at  Flushing,  in  Holland.  The  success 
of  his  ministry  there  induced  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church  in  New  York  to  invite  him  to  settle  in  that 
city,  and  it  was  notable  that  he  was  the  first  minister 
of  that  denomination  in  New  York  to  preach  in  Eng 
lish.  He  was  a  most  successful  preacher  and  a  man  of 
very  considerable  learning-,  and  one  of  the  works  by 
which  he  is  still  gratefully  remembered  is  his  translation, 
for  use  in  his  church,  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  in 
1770 — the  year  that  Princeton  gave  him  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity.  When  the  time  came  for  men  to 
declare  themselves  in  the  Revolutionary  struggle  Dr. 
Laidlie  held  aloof,  but  had  to  retire  from  his  charge, 
and  he  went  to  Red  Hook,  Long  Island,  where,  in  1779, 
he  passed  away  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  fifty- 
two  years. 

It  is  seldom  that  we  hear  of  a  preacher  who  knows 
how  to  defend  himself  with  his  fists  with  the  skill  of  a 
prizefighter,  and  the  story  of  one  is  preserved  in  the 
history  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  at  Oxford, 
Penn.,  one  of  the  oldest  associate  congregations  in 
America,  and  which  still  exists  in  a  flourishing  condi 
tion.  It  was  founded  in  1753  by  the  Rev.  Alexander 
Gellatly,  who,  along  with  the  Rev.  Andrew  Arnott,  set 
tled  in  America,  from  Scotland,  in  response  to  invita 
tions  from  the  Presbyterians  in  Lancaster  and  Chester 
Counties,  Penn.  In  1758  the  Oxford  church  called  an 
other  preacher  from  Scotland,  the  Rev.  Matthew  Hen- 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  153 

derson,  who  had  been  trained  for  the  ministry  in  Glas 
gow  University.  He  was  a  good,  earnest  man,  much 
beloved  by  his  people,  and  had  many  eccentricities  of 
manner.  Several  anecdotes  concerning  him  are  still  re- 
b.ted  at  Oxford,  some  of  which  recall  the  stories  told 
of  many  of  the  Old  Country  preachers  in  Scotland  in 
the  early  part  of  the  century.  Among  others,  it  is  said, 
that  once,  noticing  a  young  woman  with  a  new  calico 
gown  moving  frequently  to  various  parts  of  the  church, 
he  called  out:  "That  is  the  fourth  time,  my  lass,  that 
you  hae  left  your  seat.  You  can  sit  doon  now;  we  hae 
a'  seen  your  braw  new  goun."  As  he  was  journeying 
over  the  mountains  to  meet  with  his  brethren  in  the 
Presbytery  he  halted  for  the  night  at  an  inn.  While 
resting-  in  the  common  sitting  room,  two  loafers,  no 
ticing  that  he  was  a  minister,  persisted  in  trying  his 
patience  by  their  roughness,  and  finally  insisted  on  fight 
ing.  This  caused  his  Scotch  blood  to  "  boil."  Drawing 
off  his  coat,  he  exclaimed:  "  Lie  there,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Henderson,  and,  now,  Matthew,  defend  yourselV  He 
threw  one  of  his  tormentors  through  the  window,  the 
other  ran  away. 

In  the  annals  of  Presbyterianism  in  America  no  names 
are  sweeter  than  those  of  the  Masons — father  and  son — 
who  for  many  years  were  the  recognized  leaders  in 
that  communion  in  the  United  States.  The  Rev.  John 
Mason  was  born  in  Linlithgowshire  in  1734.  He  was 
trained  for  the  ministry  in  the  Secession  Church,  and 
was  an  ardent  believer,  as  were  all  his  family,  in  the 
views  held  by  the  Anti-Burghers  in  Scotland.  It  is  well 
to  remember  this  in  considering  Dr.  Mason's  work  in 
America,  for  the  Anti-Burgher  views  are  generally  con 
sidered  to  be  the  narrowest  and  most  closely  confined  of 
any  held  by  Presbyterian  denominations.  But  from  the 
time  he  settled  in 'New  York,  in  1761,  shortly  after  he 
was  ordained,  and  took  charge  of  the  Scotch  Presbyter 
ian  Church,  on  Cedar  Street,  he  was  the  apostle  of  liber 
ality  and  toleration.  He  saw  Presbyterianism  not  only 
divided,  but  the  sections  threatening  to  drift  wider  apart, 


154  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

and  while  he  recognized  the  existence  in  Scotland  of 
political  and  historical  reasons  which  almost  naturally 
created  schism  and  embittered  feeling,  he  saw  no  reason 
for  there  being  any  divisions  at  all  in  the  New  World. 
With  that  idea,  he  labored  with  intensity  and  determina 
tion,  and  his  labors  were,  to  a  very  considerable  extent, 
crowned  with  success  in  1782,  when  the  Associate  Re 
formed  Presbyterian  Church  was  organized,  and  of  its 
Assembly  he  was  the  first  Moderator.  In  all  the  relig 
ious  and  charitable  movements  of  his  time  in  New  York, 
Dr.  Mason  w-as  a  leader.  He  was  one  of  the  prime  mov 
ers  in  the  American  Bible  Society,  and  issued  an  ad 
dress  on  its  behalf  which  was  circulated  broadcast  among 
the  people.  This  movement  he  conceived  to  be  one 
of  the  most  notable  ever  inaugurated  in  the  interest  of 
Christian  union.  Its  platform  and  purpose  were  such 
that  all  Christians  could  unite  upon,  and,  indeed,  except 
for  some  objections  from  a  few  Episcopalian  dignitaries 
and  others,  it  was  accepted  in  the  spirit  of  union  by  all 
denominations,  and  has  since  done  a  mighty  work.  In 
charitable  enterprises  he  was  equally  prominent,  while 
as  Chaplain  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society,  from  1785  till 
his  death,  in  1792,  he  was  brought  into  the  closest  con 
tact  with  his  countrymen,  and  aided  largely  in  promoting 
the  society's  mission  to  "  Relieve  the  distressed/' 

Dr.  Mason's  son,  the  Rev.  John  Mitchell  Mason,  who 
was  born  in  New  York  in  1770,  was  in  many  ways  the 
most  representative  and  admired  minister  America  has 
yet  produced.  He  graduated  at  Columbia  College  in 
1789,  and  then  went  to  Edinburgh  to  complete  his  the 
ological  studies.  He  succeeded  to  the  pastoral  charge 
of  his  father's  church  on  the  latter's  death,  in  1792,  and 
he  succeeded  his  parent  as  Chaplain  of  the  St.  Andrew's 
Society,  an  office  he  held  until  1821,  when  he  left  the 
city  to  become  Principal  of  Dickinson  College,  Carlisle, 
Penn.  He  returned  to  New  York  in  1824  and  resumed 
the  active  work  of  the  ministry.  As  a  preacher  he  was 
unrivaled  in  his  day,  and  it  is  said  that  when  the  famous 
Robert  Hall  heard  him  preach  a  discourse  on  "  Mes- 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  155 

siah's  Throne"  he  said:  "I  can  never  preach  again."' 
Says  one  writer:  "  His  aspect  was  on  a  scale  of  grandeur 
corresponding  to  the  majesty  of  the  mind  within.  Tall, 
robust,  straight,  with  a  head  modeled  after  neither  Gre 
cian  nor  Roman  standards,  yet  combining  the  dignity  of 
the  one  and  the  grace  of  the  other;  with  an  eye  that 
shot  fire,  especially  when  under  the  excitement  of  ear 
nest  preaching,  yet  tender  and  tearful  when  a  pathetic 
passage  was  reached;  with  a  forehead  broad  and  high, 
and  a  mouth  expressive  of  decision,  Dr.  Mason  stood 
before  his  audience  a  prince  of  pulpit  orators."  He 
died  in  New  York  City  in  1829. 

Old  Dr.  Mason  quietly  adopted  the  American  side  in 
the  Revolutionary  struggle,  but,  unlike  Dr.  Witherspoon, 
was  regarded  so  much  as  an  unoffensive  partisan  that 
he  retained  the  good  will  of  his  friends  in  Scotland  to 
the  last.  As  an  offset  to  his  example  we  may  here  re 
call  a  clergyman  who  was  an  uncompromising  foe  to  the 
Revolutionary  movement.  That  was  the  Rev.  Henry 
Munro,  who  was  born  at  Inverness  in  1730.  His  first 
acquaintance  with  America  was  when  he  crossed  the 
Atlantic  as  the  Chaplain  (Presbyterian)  of  the  old  Sev 
enty-seventh  Regiment,  (Montgomerie's  Highlanders.) 
He  was  with  that  gallant  body  at  Fort  Duquesne,  Crown 
Point,  and  Ticonderoga,  and  was  not  only  present  at  the 
capture  of  Montreal  in  September,  1760,  but  preached 
a  rousing  thanksgiving  sermon  a  day  or  two  later  on  the 
side  of  Mount  Royal.  As  one  reward  for  his  campaigns 
he  got  a  bounty  of  2,000  acres  of  land  in  what  is  now 
Washington  County,  in  New  York  State,  but  this  land 
never  added  to  his  wealth,  for  the  troubles  of  the  Revolu 
tion  interfered  with  its  settlement,  and  it  was  confis 
cated  as  soon  as  the  progress  of  events  made  confisca 
tion  possible.  In  1762  he  settled  at  Princeton,  and  for 
some  reason  or  another  joined  the  Church  of  England, 
and  in  1765  was  stationed  as  a  missionary  at  Yonkers. 
Three  years  later  he  became  rector  of  St.  Peter^s,  at  Al 
bany,  and  was  active  in  his  missionary  labors  among  the 
Mohawk  Indians,  whose  language  he  knew  perfectly. 


156  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

When  the  war  broke  out  he  was  unsparing  in  his  de 
nunciations  of  the  "  rebels,"  and  made  himself  so  ob 
noxious  on  that  score  that  he  had  to  escape  to  the  Brit 
ish  lines.  Then  he  made  his  way  back  to  Scotland, 
where  he  died,  at  Edinburgh,  in  1801,  a  broken-hearted 
old  man  whose  life  went  out  under  a  sense  of  having 
suffered  deep  wrongs.  He  had  married  in  1766  a  daugh 
ter  of  Peter  Jay,  and  the  lady  and  her  family  were  as 
enthusiastic  in  favor  of  the  Revolution  as  Munro  was 
opposed  to  it.  She  not  only  refused  to  accompany  him, 
but  retained  with  her  their  only  son — Peter  Jay  Munro. 
Father  and  son  never  afterward  saw  each  other.  The 
lad  was  educated  under  the  direction  of  his  famous  uncle, 
John  Jay;  accompanied  that  statesman  to  Spain  as  an 
attache  of  the  American  Embassy,  and  then  studied  law 
in  the  office  of  Aaron  Burr.  He  rose  in  time  to  become 
one  of  the  foremost  members  of  the  New  York  Bar,  and 
served  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1821.  He 
died  at  Mamaroneck  in  1833. 

Few  clergymen  have  led  more  stirring  lives  than  did 
the  Rev.  William  Smith,  a  man  of  broad  culture,  of  in 
tense  energy,  of  more  than  ordinary  ability,  and  a 
preacher  of  wonderful  force.  He  was  born  at  Aberdeen 
in  1727,  and  graduated  from  the  university  there.  He 
began  life  as  a  teacher,  and  came  here  in  1752  to  take 
charge  of  the  seminary  in  Philadelphia,  out  of  which 
grew  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  In  1753  he  went 
to  England  and  received  orders  in  the  national  Church 
there.  On  his  return  he  was  an  active  preacher  as  well 
as  a  successful  teacher,  and  when,  in  1759,  he  revisited 
England  his  merit  and  ability  were  so  widely  recognized 
that  he  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from 
the  Universities  of  Oxford,  Aberdeen,  and  Dublin.  He 
threw  himself  heartily  into  the  popular  side  in  the  Revo 
lution,  preached  frequently  to  the  troops,  and  did  what 
ever  he  could,  consistent  with  his  position,  to  favor  the 
movement  for  independence.  His  very  consistency 
raised  up  several  enemies,  and  caused  even  a  doubt  to  be 
cast  on  the  sinceritv  of  his  sentiments,  but  such  doubts 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  157 

were  utterly  unfounded.  In  June,  1775,  he  preached  a 
sermon  in  Philadelphia  to  Col.  Cadwallader's  battalion 
which  created  a  sensation,  so  outspoken  were  its  senti 
ments,  so  clearly  did  he  proclaim  the  righteousness  of 
the  cause  of  the  dissidents.  Even  this  sermon  gave  rise 
to  criticism.  The  bane  of  his  career  was  that  his  per 
sonal  character  in  many  ways  was  not  a  lovable  one. 
He  had  a  sharp  temper  and  a  tongue  that  was  often  in 
temperate  in  its  expressions  of  personal  dislike.  Then 
the  impetuosity  of  his  disposition  involved  him  in  count 
less  arguments  and  impelled  men  who  really  ought  to 
have  been  ranged  among  his  friends  to  be  ranked  among 
his  enemies.  The  sentiment  against  him  was  so  bitter  in 
some  influential  quarters  for  a  time  as  to  cause  the  charter 
of  the  college  in  Philadelphia,  of  which  he  was  the  head, 
to  be  suspended  for  ten  years,  and  later  to  defeat  the 
approval  by  the  General  Convocation  of  his  Church  of 
his  election  as  Bishop  of  Maryland.  But  he  continued 
preaching  and  teaching — mainly  at  Chesterton,  Md., 
(where  he  established  Washington  College,)  until  the 
clouds  rolled  away,  and  his  latter  years  in  Philadelphia, 
where  he  died  in  1803,  were  spent  pleasantly  and  peace 
fully.  The  blemish  in  Dr.  Smith's  career  was  his  fond 
ness  for  secular  pursuits,  notably  for  land  speculation,  a 
weakness  that  has  never  yet,  so  far  as  our  experience 
goes,  added  much  to  the  popularity  of  a  clergyman.  It 
may  safely  be  said,  however,  that  his  business  ventures 
never  interfered  with  his  duties  as  a  teacher,  a  Principal 
of  a  seat  of  learning,  or  as  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel.  He 
was  an  incessant  worker,  a  marvel  of  energy.  In  spite 
of  his  numerous  avocations  he  devoted  a  great  deal  of 
time  to  his  study,  and  was  a  voluminous  writer  on  re 
ligious  and  secular  topics  and  a  patient  investigator  of 
scientific  matters.  A  nephew  of  this  sturdy  divine,  Will 
iam  Smith — also  an  Aberdonian  and  a  zealous  upholder 
of  the  Revolutionary  cause — was  rector  of  Trinity 
Church,  Newport,  for  seven  years,  having  previously 
held  rectorships  at  Stepney,  Md.,  and  Narragansett,  R. 
I.,  and  afterward,  until  his  death,  in  1821,  at  the  age  of 
sixty-seven  years,  was  a  preacher  and  teacher  in  New 


158  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

York.  His  pupils  were  mainly  private  ones,  and  as  a 
classical  instructor  he  was  regarded  as  the  foremost  in 
the  city.  He  was  the  author  of  several  religious  works, 
which  seem  now  to  be  unobtainable — and  forgotten. 

Having  recalled  two  pro-Revolutionary  ministers,  the 
strict  impartiality  of  this  survey  again  impels  us  to  con 
sider  two  who  wrere  conspicuous  in  their  own  circles  on 
the  opposite  side.  The  first  of  this  pair  was  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Myles  Cooper,  a  poet  of  no  mean  order,  as  well  as  a 
theologian  and  life-long  student.  The  place  of  his  birth 
is  uncertain.  He  seems  to  have  been  educated  at  Ox 
ford,  and  was  a  Fellow  of  Queen's  College  there.  In  1763 
he  was  elected  second  President  of  King's  College  (now 
Columbia  College,)  New  York,  and  in  the  performance 
of  all  the  duties  pertaining  to  that  office  he  was  faithful 
and  zealous  and  deservedly  popular.  He,  however,  took 
up  such  a  thoroughgoing  loyal  stand  against  the  Ameri 
cans  in  the  troubles  with  the  mother  country  that  in  1775 
he  was  obliged  to  return  to  Britain.  Dr.  Cooper  soon 
after  his  return  was  made  rector  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
(now  a  Roman  Catholic  church)  in  the  Cowgate  of  Ed 
inburgh,  and  he  continued  in  charge  of  that  congrega 
tion  until  his  death  in  1785. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Rankin  was  another  refugee.  He 
was  born  at  Dunbar  in  1738,  and  crossed  to  America 
as  a  missionary  sent  by  John  Wesley.  Before  that  he 
had  been  preaching  in  various  Methodist  Episcopal  cir 
cuits,  Sussex,  Devonshire,  and  others,  and  was  regard 
ed  as  a  successful  evangelist  and  a  most  devoted  worker 
in  the  promulgation  of  Scriptural  truths.  He  was  equally 
successful  in  his  work  in  America  until  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities,  when  his  intense  loyalty  made  him  turn  his 
abilities  to  keeping  the  clergy  of  all  denominations  fast  in 
their  loyalty  to  George  III.  He  thought  there  was  no 
use  of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  men  who  were  arrayed  in 
open  opposition  to  lawful  authority.  "  God,"  he  said, 
"  would  not  revive  His  work  in  America  until  they  sub 
mitted  to  their  rightful  sovereign."  Holding  such  views, 
his  usefulness  in  the  New  World  was  at  an  end,  and  he 
returned  to  England,  spending  his  latter  years  in  mis- 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.          159 

sionary  work  in  London.  We  may  close  our  selection  of 
Revolutionary  era  preachers  by  recalling  the  name  of 
the  Rev.  Alexander  Hewat,  who  may  be  classed  as  an 
inoffensive  partisan.  He  was  born  at  Kelso  in  1745, 
educated  at  the  grammar  school  there,  and  became  pas 
tor  of  the  Scotch  Church  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  in  1762. 
He  remained  in  Charleston  until  it  seemed  certain  that 
war  was  about  to  break  out,  when,  unwilling  to  renounce 
his  allegiance,  he  relinquished  his  charge  and  returned  to 
the  mother  country.  His  interest  in  America  did  not, 
however,  cease  when  he  left  it,  for  in  1779  he  published 
in  London  a  valuable  and  interesting  "  History  of  South 
Carolina  and  Charleston,"  his  only  published  work  o'f 
which  we  have  knowledge  excepting  a  volume  of  ser 
mons,  which  he  published  in  1803.  Within  a  year  after 
reaching  America  Mr.  Hewat  testified  to  his  native  pa 
triotism  by  joining  the  Charleston  St.  Andrew's  Society. 
That  society  in  the  early  period  of  its  career  was  watch 
ful  to  add  to  its  list  of  members  all  notable  arrivals  to 
the  Scottish  community,  and  among  its  pre- Revolution* 
ary  members  we  find  such  names  as  those  of  Gov.  James 
Wright  of  Georgia,  Sir  Alex  Nesbit,  Gov.  Johnston  of 
North  Carolina,  Sir  James  Home,  Gov.  James  Grant  of 
East  Florida,  and  Gov.  James  Glen  of  South  Carolina. 
The  early  records  are  full  of  military  names,  and  in  one 
year  the  resident  members  placed  on  the  roll  the  names 
of  the  Earl  of  Eglinton  and  all  the  officers  of  Montgom- 
erie's  Highlanders  they  appeared  to  have  been  acquaint 
ed  with. 

Henceforth,  in  this  chapter  at  all  events,  we  deal  with 
men  of  peace — men  who  were  permitted  to  carry  on  their 
spiritual  work  without  interference  from  the  roll  of  drums 
or  the  agitations  of  political  strife.  The  clergy  who  set 
tled  in  America  from  Scotland  after  Washington  and  his 
compatriots  placed  the  United  States  in  the  list  of  na 
tions  accepted  the  situation  loyally.  In  fact,  Scotsmen 
generally  accept  a  change  in  such  respects  with  equa 
nimity — when  it  is  made  for  them.  Even  in  religious 
matters,  what  in  Scotland  would  be  deemed  a  momen 
tous  change  is  accepted  by  the  Scot  in  foreign  lands 


160  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

without  scruple.  We  have  known  Scotsmen  who  at 
home  would  have  turned  pale  at  the  thought  of  a  harmo 
nium  in  a  kirk  be  quite  satisfied  with  the  assistance  of 
an  organ  in  a  church  in  America,  and  can  recall  in 
stances  of  many  dour  opponents  of  the  use  of  anything 
in  the  worship  of  praise  except  the  "  Psalms  of  Dauvit " 
who  willingly  saw  spiritual  beauty  in  many  hymns  by  un 
inspired  writers  after  they  had  been  a  few  weeks  in  the 
United  States  or  Canada. 

The  Rev.  James  Muir,  Presbyterian  minister  at  Alex 
andria,  Va.,  from  1789  till  his  death  in  1820,  deserves  to 
be  held  in  kindly  remembrance  for  the  able  manner  in 
which  he  handled  in  at  least  one  published  volume  the 
heresies  of  Thomas  Paine,  the  sceptic,  when  they  were 
enjoying  more  influence  than  they  do  now,  or  than  they 
ever  deserved.  Mr.  Muir  was  born  at  Cumnock,  Ayr 
shire,  in  1757,  and  had  studied  for  the  ministry  at  Glas 
gow  and  Edinburgh.  He  had  been  pastor  of  the  Scotch 
Church  in  London,  and  of  a  church  in  Bermuda  for  eight 
years,  before  settling  in  America  in  1788.  He  was  a  man 
of  wide  views,  tolerant  of  all  opinions  which  he  believed 
to  be  honestly  held  or  uttered,  and  thoroughly  orthodox 
in  all  he  himself  said  or  wrote,  as  may  be  seen  by  a  pe 
rusal  of  the  volume  of  sermons  he  published  in  1810. 
His  son,  Samuel,  had  a  strange  history.  He  was  born  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  in  1789,  and  in  due  time  was 
sent  to  Edinburgh  to  study  medicine.  In  1813  he  was 
appointed  a  surgeon  in  the  United  States  Army.  That 
position  he  resigned  in  1818,  when  he  married  the  daugh 
ter  of  the  then  chief  of  the  Sac,  or  Fox,  Indians.  He 
settled  among  his  wife's  people,  assumed  their  ways,  and 
became  regarded  as  one  of  their  leaders.  In  1828  he 
left  the  Indian  settlements  and  earned  his  living  again 
by  practicing  medicine  at  Galena,  111.  In  1832,  when 
there  was  an  epidemic  of  cholera  among  the  United 
States  troops,  he  volunteered  his  services.  His  offer  was 
accepted,  and  he  saved  many  lives  by  his  skill,  but  fell 
himself  a  victim  to  the  disease  within  a  few  months. 

It  is  refreshing  after  dwelling  so  long  among  "  the 
cloth  "  to  turn  to  a  lay  preacher  who  did  magnificent 


MINISTERS  AND  RELIGIOUS  TEACHERS. 

work  for  the  Master  in  his  day  and  generation  and  around 
whose  name  many  fragrant  memories  yet  linger.  This 
was  John  Clark,  better  known  as  Father  Clark,  whose 
only  educational  training  was  that  which  he  received  in 
the  school  of  his  native  parish  of  Petty,  near  Inverness. 
He  was  born  there  in  1758,  and  in  early  life  is  said  to 
have  been  a  sailor.  In  the  course  of  one  voyage  he  land 
ed  in  America  and  concluded  to  associate  his  future  with 
it.  He  settled  for  a  time  in  South  Carolina,  where  he 
taught  in  a  backwoods  log  school,  and  then  moved  to 
Georgia,  where  he  joined  the  Methodist  Church  and  be 
came  a  class  leader.  Desiring  to  revisit  his  native  land, 
in  1787  he  engaged  to  work  his  passage  before  the  mast, 
and  did  so,  but  remained  at  home  only  a  short  time.  Re 
turning  to  America  in  1789,  he  became  an  itinerant 
preacher  in  connection  with  the  Methodist  body,  his 
travels  being  mainly  throughout  Georgia.  He  was  a  man 
of  devout  spirit,  outspoken  in  his  views  and  ready  to  de 
nounce  wrong  wherever  he  found  it,  without  regard  to 
church  affiliation,  general  policy,  or  self-interest.  As 
might  be  expected,  he  was  a  bitter  foe  to  slavery,  and  it 
is  on  record  that  he  twice  refused  to  accept  his  annual 
salary  of  $60  because  the  money  was  obtained  through 
slave  labor.  Doctrinal  differences  at  length  led  to  his 
withdrawal  from  the  Methodist  Church,  and  he  went  to 
Illinois,  where  he  taught  school,  preaching  as  he  got  an 
opportunity,  without  owning  allegiance  to  any  denomi 
nation.  Then  he  joined  the  anti-slavery  Baptist  organi 
zation  known  as  the  "  Baptized  Church  of  Christ,  Friends 
of  Humanity,"  and  in  connection  with  that  body  he  re 
sumed  his  work  as  a  traveling  evangelist. 

"  Father  Clark,"  as  he  was  lovingly  called,  was  inde 
fatigable  in  his  work  of  spreading  a  knowledge  of  the 
Gospel.  His  missionary  wanderings  led  him  far  into  the 
then  unknown  West  and  southward  through  Florida. 
We  have  a  record  of  his  having  walked,  when  seventy 
years  of  age,  over  sixty  miles  to  fulfill  a  preaching  en 
gagement,  and  one  missionary  journey  of  1,200  miles 
was  performed  alone,  partly  on  foot  and  partly  with  the 
aid  of  an  old  canoe.  He  died  at  St.  Louis  in  1833.  In 


162  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

his  wanderings  and  devotion  4<  Father  Clark  "  was  the 
best  modern  prototype  of  St.  Andrew  of  whom  we  have 
knowledge. 

Few  ministers  have  found  it  more  difficult  to  find  a 
congenial  denomination  to  cling  to  than  did  the  Rev. 
Walter  Balfour,  who  was  born  at  St.  Ninians  in  the  year 
of  American  independence  and  died  at  Charlestown, 
Mass.,  in  1852.  Early  in  life  he  became  a  protege  of  the 
sainted  Robert  Haldane,  and  was  educated  through  that 
gentleman's  instrumentality  for  the  ministry.  He  was  in 
tended  for  a  pulpit  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  but  shortly 
after  crossing  the  Atlantic,  in  1806,  he  associated  himself 
with  the  Baptists.  In  that  communion  he  remained,  lat 
terly  much  discontented,  until  1823,  when,  after  much 
thought  and  careful  study  into  the  tenets  of  every  Chris 
tian  denomination,  and  with  much  mental  misgiving,  he 
affiliated  with  the  Universalists,  and  there  found  that  en 
tire  freedom  from  doctrinal  restraint  for  which  he  had  so 
long  yearned.  In  that  Church  he  reached  the  height  of 
his  popularity  as  a  preacher,  orator,  and  as  an  author. 
His  work  entitled  "  Essay  on  the  Intermediate  State  of 
the  Dead  "  was  long  considered  a  model  of  its  kind  for 
closeness  of  argument,  delicacy  of  thought,  and  beauty  of 
language. 

Along  with  the  names  of  the  Masons  in  the  religious 
history  of  New  York  stand  those  of  the  McLeods  in  the 
regard  and  veneration  of  those  who  have  studied  it.  The 
founder  of  the  American  family  was  Dr.  Alexander  Mc- 
Leod,  who  was  born  in  the  Island  of  Mull  in  1774,  and 
died  in  New  York  in  1833.  He  settled  in  America  when 
young,  and  was  trained  for  the  ministry,  graduating  from 
Union  College  in  1798.  For  a  short  time  he  was  pastor 
of  a  church  at  Wallkill,  N.  Y.,  but  what  may  be  termed 
his  life  connection  was  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Re 
formed  Presbyterian  Church  in  New  York.  During  that 
long  pastorate  "  Dr.  McLeod's  kirk "  was  a  Scottish 
landmark  in  New  York,  and  the  fame  of  the  preacher 
was  carried  all  over  the  country  by  hosts  of  his  country 
men,  who,  after  sojourning  in  the  American  metropolis 
for  a  time,  departed  for  other  sections  of  the  continent.  His 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.          153 

powers  as  a  pulpit  orator  were  of  a  high  order,  and  his 
discourses  were  prepared  with  rare  analytical  skill.  Every 
subject  he  touched  was  thoroughly  discussed,  and,  while 
strictly  orthodox,  he  exemplified  by  his  pulpit  ministra 
tions  that  a  man  can  be  at  once  orthodox  and  original. 
As  one  of  the  Chaplains  for  many  years  of  the  St.  An 
drew's  Society  he  kept  in  active  touch  with  his  country 
men  in  New  York  of  all  classes,  and  was  beloved  by  them 
all.  After  his  death  his  son,  the  Rev.  John  Neil  McLeod, 
succeeded  to  his  pastorate.  He  was  an  able  man,  as  his 
published  sermons,  like  those  of  his  father,  still  testify, 
and  under  his  care  the  First  Reformed  Church  continued 
to  be  a  power  in  the  religious  life  of  New  York.  He  was 
a  Calvinist  of  the  sternest  school,  and  was  throughout 
his  long  life  bitterly  opposed  to  secret  societies  of  all 
sorts  or  to  the  singing  in  public  worship  of  anything  ex 
cept  the  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  of  Israel's  sweet 
singer.  He  died  in  1874.  A  brother  of  this  worthy  min 
ister  had  rather  a  strange  career.  He  broke  away  from 
the  Presbyterian  fold  when  a  young  man  and  entered  the 
Episcopalian.  Then,  like  so  many  others  in  such  cir 
cumstances,  he  went  to  the  end  of  his  tether — followed 
his  changing  views  to  their  natural  end — and  became  a 
Roman  Catholic.  For  several  years  prior  to  his  death, 
the  result  of  a  railroad  accident  near  Cincinnati,  in  1865, 
he  was  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  a  Roman  Catholic  col 
lege  in  Ohio.  Xavier  Donald  McLeod  was  a  man  of 
marked  ability  and  scholarship.  Among  his  published 
writings  are  a  "  Life  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,"  a  "  Life 
of  Sir  Walter  Scott,"  and  at  least  one  volume  of  poetry. 
Another  New  York  clergyman  who  was  well  known 
,pn  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  was  the  Rev.  Archibald 
Maclay,  who  was  born  at  Killearn  in  1778  and  settled  in 
New  York  in  1805.  He  had  been  a  minister  for  a  short 
time  in  Kirkcaldy  before  crossing  the  Atlantic,  and  on 
his  arrival  in  New  York  he  at  once  got  charge  of  a  small 
Presbyterian  church  in  Rose  street.  In  the  course  of  a 
year  or  two  his  views  on  the  subject  of  baptism  so 
changed  that  he  felt  impelled  to  throw  in  his  lot  with  the 
Baptist  denomination,  and  in  connection  therewith  he 


164  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

founded  a-  church  on  Mulberry  Street,  (afterward  in  Sec 
ond  Avenue,)  of  which  he  continued  to  be  pastor  for 
nearly  thirty  years.  In  1837  ne  retired  from  pastoral 
work  and  became  agent  of  the  American  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society.  In  that  capacity  he  traveled  extensively 
through  the  United  States,  Canada,  and  Great  Britain. 
In  1850  he  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  American 
Bible  Union,  and  was  elected  its  President.  He  was 
drawn  to  take  the  great  interest  he  did  in  the  dissemina 
tion  of  the  printed  Scriptures  because  he  realized  that  to 
be  one  of  the  quickest  means  in  the  power  of  man  for 
spreading  into  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  world  a 
knowledge  of  the  unspeakable  riches  of  the  Truth.  He 
regarded  every  Bible,  or  portion  of  the  Bible,  as  a  mis 
sionary  ever  ready  to  do  effective  work  and  enjoying  a 
closeness  of  communion  which  no  merely  human  teacher 
could  hope  to  equal.  At  the  same  time  Dr.  Maclay  was 
outspoken  in  arguing  the  desirability  of  a  new  transla 
tion  of  the  Scriptures,  or  the  need,  at  least,  of  a  revision 
of  that  which  was  given  to  the  world  under  the  patron 
age  of  King  James,  "  the  Sapient  and  the  Sext "  of  Scot 
land.  It  was  with  this  object  in  view  that  he  helped  to 
organize  the  Bible  Translation  Society  of  England. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  he  did  good  work  in  forming 
public  opinion  to  the  necessity  of  revision,  and  that  it 
was  due  to  him,  as  much  as  to  any  single  individual,  that 
the  work  was  begun  in  1870 — ten  years  after  he  had 
passed  from  his  labors  to  his  reward. 

Almost  equally  prominent  during  a  long  American  ca 
reer  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  James  Laurie  of  Washington.  He 
was  educated  for  the  ministry  in  his  native  city  of  Edin 
burgh  and  obtained  his  license  as  a  preacher  in  1800. 
Two  years  later  he  determined,  on  the  invitation  of  Dr. 
J.  M.  Mason,  to  settle  in  America,  and  in  1803  he  was 
installed  as  pastor  of  the  Associate  Reformed  Church  in 
Washington.  At  first  he  preached  in.  the  old  Treasury 
Building — a  structure  that  was  afterward  burned  by  the 
British  troops,  in  1814.  One  of  his  first  duties  was  to 
procure  a  decent  church  for  his  people.  This  he  accom 
plished  in  1807,  after  acting  the  part  of  a  "big  beggar 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  165 

man  "  in  every  quarter  of  the  country  where  contribu 
tions  were  likely  to  be  had.  He  preached  and  implored 
wherever  he  went,  for  it  was  a  period  when  money  was 
scarce  and  the  "  art  of  giving  "  was  not  understood  as 
well  as  now.  He  continued  to  act  as  pastor  of  his  church 
for  forty-six  years,  and  for  a  time  held  a  position  in  the 
Treasury  Department,  closing  a  life  of  devotion  to  the 
cause  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  pilgrimage,  at  Wash 
ington,  in  1853.  Another  of  Dr.  Mason's  proteges  was 
the  Rev.  R.  Hamilton  Bishop,  a  native  of  Edinburgh, 
who  settled  in  America  in  1801,  and,  after  preaching  for 
several  years  in  New  York,  went  West  as  a  missionary 
and  subsequently  was  connected,  as  teacher  or  Principal, 
with  several  Western  colleges.  He  died  at  College  Hill, 
Ohio,  in  1865. 

Dr.  William  M.  Taylor,  who  died  at  New  York  in 
1895,  in  the  dignified  position  of  a  "  pastor  emeritus  "  of 
the  church  to  which  he  gave  the  best  years  of  his  active 
life,  was  a  worthy  successor  to  the  Masons  and  Mc- 
Leods,  whose  pulpits  were  so  long  lights  to  the  Scottish 
dwellers  in  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  United 
States.  Born  at  Kilmarnock  in  1829  and  educated  for 
the  ministry  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  at  Glas 
gow  and  Edinburgh,  William  Mackergo  Taylor  was  a 
painstaking  and  brilliant  student.  For  two  years,  from 
June,  1853,  he  was  minister  of  a  church  .at  Kilmaurs, 
near  his  native  town.  In  1855  he  went  to  Bootle,  near 
Liverpool,  and  he  remained  there  until  1872,  when  he 
accepted  a  call  to  the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  New  York, 
of  which,  after  many  years  of  faithful  labor,  he  became 
pastor  emeritus  three  years  before  his  death.  By  his 
writings  Dr.  Taylor  enjoyed  the  acquaintance  of  a  wide 
circle  of  readers.  His  monograph  on  "  John  Knox  "  is 
the*  best  short  life  of  the  great  Scotch  Reformer  which  has 
yet  been  written — the  best  for  those  to  read  who  have 
not  the  patience  or  the  time  to  enjoy  McCrie's  classic 
work.  His  books  on  Bible  biographies  have  been  circu 
lated- by  the*  thousand,  and  his  published  sermons  have 
also  had  thousands  of  readers.  In  1886  Dr.  Taylor  was 
the  "  Lyman  Beecher  Lecturer "  at  Yale  Theological 


166  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Seminary,  and  in  connection  with  that  appointment  de 
livered  a  series  of  lectures  on  "  The  Scottish  Pulpit  from 
the  Reformation  to  the  Present  Day,''  which  is  virtually 
a  sketch  of  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  his  native  land. 
By  the  terseness  and  lucidity  of  his  style  in  these  lectures 
Dr.  Taylor  controverted  unconsciously  the  oft-repeated 
fallacy  that  men  who  are  in  the  habit  of  preaching  lose 
the  power  of  condensing  their  thoughts  and  arguments. 
Faithful  lives  in  the  ministry,  might  be  the  words  used 
in  summing  up  the  careers  of  such  men  as  Dr.  W.  C. 
Brownlee,  a  native  of  Lanarkshire,  who  closed  a  long  life 
of  usefulness  in  New  York  in  1860;  of  Andrew  Stark,  a 
Stirlingshire  man,  who  was  pastor  of  Grand  Street  Church, 
Xew  York,  for  a  few  years,  and  died  in  Scotland,  as  did 
one  of  his  successors  in  that  charge,  the  Rev.  Dr.  John 
Thomson;  of  Robert  Kirkwood,  once  of  Paisley,  who  died 
at  Yonkers  in  1866,  after  holding  pastorates  at  Court- 
landville  and  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  and  after  several  years'  ex 
perience  as  a  missionary  in  Illinois;  of  Dr.  John  Lillie,  a 
Kelso  man,  who  was  one  of  the  foremost  ministers  at 
Kingston,  N.  Y.,  from  1836  till  his  death  in  1867,  and 
gave  many  evidences  of  the  possession  of  ripe  scholar 
ship,  notably  by  his  translations  in  connection  with 
Lange's  magnificent  series  of  commentaries;  of  Dr.  Peter 
D.  Gorrie,  who  was  carried  across  the  Atlantic  in  1820, 
wrhen  only  three  years  old,  from  his  native  city  of  Glas- 
gow,  and  was  a  noted  member  of  the  Methodist  Episco 
pal  Church,  and  died  at  Potsdam,  N.  Y.,  in  1884;  of  Dr. 
J.  Harkness  of  Jersey  City,  who  was  born  in  1803  and 
died  in  1878,  whose  birthplace  was  in  Roxburghshire,  and 
whose  first  charge  was  at  Ecclefechan,  where  his  son, 
William  Harkness,  the  famous  astronomer,  was  born  in 
1836;  of  Dr.  Duncan  R.  Campbell,  long  of  Covington 
County,  who  was  born  in  Perthshire  in  1814  and  was 
President  of  Georgetown  College  when  he  died,  in  1861 ; 
of  David  Inglis,  a  native  of  Greenlaw,  Berwickshire,  who, 
after  holding  various  minor  pastorates,  became,  in  1871, 
a  professor  in  Knox  College,  Toronto,  and  died  in  1877, 
while  pastor  of  a  Dutch  Reformed  Church  in  Brooklyn, 
and  of  hundreds  of  others — enough  to  make  up  a  very 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  167 

respectable    dictionary    of    representative    clerical    biog 
raphy. 

These  men  belonged  to  generations  which  have  passed. 
What  may  be  called  our  own  generation  is  still  adding 
to  the  list — adding,  it  may  be  said,  in  greater  proportion 
than  any  previous  one,  so  far  as  our  records  enable  us  to 
judge.  In  Canada  the  great  majority  of  the  Presbyterian 
divines  are  of  Scotch  birth  or  of  immediate  Scottish  de 
scent.  In  the  States  such  men  as  the  Rev.  William  Or- 
miston,  now  of  California,  provide  us  with  names  suffi 
cient  to  show  that  Scotland  still  "  leavens  the  lump." 

Latterly  we  have  been  dealing  with  preachers  pure  and 
simple ;  with  ministers  who  by  their  own  merits  won  posi 
tions  of  pre-eminence  for  themselves  in  the  world  of  the 
ological  thought,  or  by  their  eloquence  made  their  pul 
pits  conspicuous  "  above  the  lave,''  or  by  their  sainted 
lives  left  memories  which  are  still  among  the  precious 
heritages  of  their  own  churches  and  denominations.  In 
thinking  over  the  influence  which  Scotland  has  exerted 
over  the  history  of  religion  in  America  we  somehow 
overlook,  however,  the  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  who-  have 
adorned  the  Churches  in  which  their  lifework  was  done, 
or  is  being  done.  The  bulk  of  Scotsmen  are  so  accus 
tomed  to  their  Presbyterian,  or  Congregational  form  of 
Government,  with  the  practical  independence  of  each 
church  and  the  equality  in  rank  of  all  ministers,  that 
they  seldom  contemplate  Deans  and  Bishops,  and  an 
Archbishop  seems  to  them  a  man  who  stands  a  long  way 
off,  so  little  does  he  enter  into  their  calculations.  Some 
times  they  are  told  that  the  Moderator  of  a  Presbytery 
is  a  sort  of  Bishop,  and  that  the  Moderator  of  a  General 
Assembly  is  virtually  an  Archbishop.  But  the  men  who 
have  held  such  positions  seldom,  if  ever,  think  so  them 
selves;  and  if  they  did  they  would  soon  be  dispossessed 
of  such  thoughts.  Beside,  they  hold  such  offices  only 
for  a  brief  period  and  by  the  votes  of  their  brethren,  and 
after  a  short  interval  lay  down  their  honors  and  fall  into 
line  once  more  with  the  rank  and  file  unless — as  is  often 
the  case — their  own  ability  wins  for  them  continued 
prominence  and  influence.  There  never  was  a  purer  form 


168  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

of  democracy  conceived  by  man  than  that  which  pre 
vails  in  the  Government  of  the  Kirk. 

But  Scotland  can  point  to  a  long  array  of  Bishops — 
good,  bad,  and  indifferent — and  the  race  in  America  has 
had  its  influence  on  the  Episcopal  throne  as  well  as  in 
the  halls  of  Assembly  and  of  Congress.  The  Scottish- 
American  Bishops,  however,  were — or  are — all  good  men 
and  true,  and  however  we  may  differ  from  their  views  or 
standpoints,  we  cannot  withhold  from  them  that  com 
mendation  which  the  sanctity  of  their  lives,  the  devo 
tion  of  their  purposes,  and  their  high  abilities  imperative 
ly  demand. 

In  the  annals  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  United  States  few  memories  are  more  precious  than 
that  of  Bishop  James  Kemp  of  Maryland.  He  was  born 
in  the  Parish  of  Keith-Hall,  Aberdeenshire,  in  1764,  and 
educated  for  the  Presbyterian  ministry  at  Marischal  Col 
lege,  Aberdeen.  In  1787  he  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and 
for  two  years  was  employed  as  tutor  in  a  family  in  Dor 
chester  County,  Maryland.  During  these  two  years  his 
views  on  Presbyterianism  underwent  a  change  and  he 
was  led  to  study  the  tenets  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  finally  to  fully  and  loyally  accept  them.  He  devoted 
all  his  spare  time  to  the  study  of  theology,  and  in  1789 
was  ordained  a  priest  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 
In  the  following  year  he  was  appointed  rector  of  Great 
Choptank  Parish  in  Maryland.  There  he  remained, 
faithfully  fulfilling  his  pastoral  duties  and  steadily  adding 
to  his  store  of  learning,  until,  in  1813,  he  was  elected 
rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Baltimore.  By  that  time  he 
was  recognized  as  the  most  profound  theologian  in  the 
diocese,  and  his  ability  as  a  preacher,  his  able  executive 
qualities,  and  the  native  kindliness  of  his  disposition,  had 
won  him  hosts  of  friends.  In  these  circumstances,  when 
it  became  necessary,  in  1814,  to  appoint  a  suffragan 
Bishop  to  aid  Bishop  Claggett,  there  was  little  opposition 
to  the  selection  of  Dr.  Kemp,  and  he  was  duly  conse 
crated.  T\vo  years  later  he  succeeded,  on  the  death  of 
Dr.  Claggett,  to  the  full  honors  of  the  Bishopric,  and  oc 
cupied  that  position,  as  well  as  the  office  of  Provost  of 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  1G9 

the  University  of  Maryland,  till  his  death,  in  1827,  at 
Baltimore. 

Bishop  Kemp  published  during  his  lifetime  several  of 
his  sermons  on  special  occasions  and  a  number  of  con 
troversial  tracts,  but  such  specialties  are  by  no  means 
contributions  to  literature,  and  have,  naturally,  been 
long  forgotten.  Not  so,  however,  the  example  of  his 
life,  his  devotion  to  duty,  and  the  manner  in  which  he 
administered  and  discharged  every  trust  confided  to  him. 

The  Episcopal  Church  iff  the  Dominion  gives  us  sev 
eral  examples  of  noted  Scotch  Bishops,  for  the  Scot  in 
Canada  flourishes  and  forces  his  way  to  the  front  under 
all  sorts  of  conditions.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these  dig 
nitaries  was  Charles  J.  Stewart,  Bishop  of  Quebec.  He 
was  the  fifth  son  of  John,  seventh  Earl  of  Galloway,  and 
was  born  at  Galloway  House,  Wigtownshire,  in  1775. 
He  was  educated  at  Oxford.  Having  selected  the  min 
istry  for  his  lifework,  his  studies  were  directed  toward 
that  end,  and  in  1800  he  was  ordained  a  priest.  His  first 
charge  was  a  small  parish  near  Peterborough,  England, 
where  he  remained  eight  years.  Then,  desiring  to  engage 
in  mission  work,  he  applied  to  the  Society  for  the  Propa 
gation  of  the  Gospel  and  was  assigned  to  the  mission  of 
St.  Armand,  P.  Q.  There  he  built  a  church  at  his  own 
expense;  but  his  district  was  a  wide  one,  and  he  was 
equally  ready  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  a  parlor,  a  barn, 
or  a  room  in  a  village  inn,  as  in  the  sacred  edifice  he  had 
had  constructed.  In  1819  he  became  visiting  missionary 
in  the  Diocese  of  Quebec,  virtually  embracing  the  whole 
of  Canada,  and  the  story  of  his  journeys  in  the  discharge 
of  his  duties,  involving  discomfort,  danger,  fatigue,  and 
discouragements,  would  furnish  themes  for  many  ro 
mances.  Bishop  Mountain  of  Quebec  died  in  1825,  and 
the  faithful  missionary  was  nominated  to  the  see.  He  was 
consecrated  in  Lambeth  Palace,  London,  and  at  once 
entered  on  his  duties.  These  he  performed  with  rare 
fidelity  till  his  death,  in  1837.  '  He  was,"  wrote  Mr.  H. 
J.  Morgan,  "  a  most  zealous  servant  and  soldier  of  Christ, 
a  noble,  disinterested  being,  endowed  with  rich  qualities 
of  heart  and  mind,  and  a  mouth  that  spoke  no  guile." 


170  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Bishop  Strachan  of  Toronto  will  long  be  remembered 
in  Canada  as  having  virtually  ruled  the  Church  of  Eng 
land  there  during  many  years  of  his  life,  and  for  having 
ruled  it  well.  He  was  born  at  Aberdeen  in  1778,  grad 
uated  at  King's  College  in  that  city,  and  afterward  stud 
ied  theology  at  St.  Andrews.  After  a  brief  experience  as 
a  teacher  in  Scotland  he  emigrated  to  Canada  in  1799, 
and  taught  school  at  Kingston,  Ontario,  for  some  three 
years.  He  was  ordained  to  the  priesthood  in  1803,  and 
opened  a  school  at  Cornwall,  where  he  remained  until, 
in  1812,  he  became  rector  of  York  (Toronto.)  Here  he 
commenced  his  career  as  a  statesman  as  well  as  a  pastor. 
He  was  nominated  an  Executive  Councillor,  took  his 
seat  in  the  Legislative  Council,  and  continued  to  show 
an  active  and  direct  interest  in  politics  until  the  end  of 
his  career.  In  1825  he  was  appointed  Archdeacon  of  York, 
and  in  1839  reached  the  highest  of  his  ecclesiastical  hon 
ors  when  he  was  nominated  Bishop  of  Toronto.  Few 
men  possessed  more  influence  in  Canada  than  this  noted 
prelate.  He  established  some  fifty-seven  rectories  in 
Ontraio,  and  to  his  efforts  was  due  the  foundation  of 
Trinity  College,  Toronto.  The  cause  of  education  was 
possibly  dearer  to  his  heart  than  any  other  earthly 
agency,  and  as  a  successful  teacher  himself  he  knew  how 
to  appreciate  success  in  others.  Quite  a  large  number 
of  eminent  men  sat  under  him  as  pupils.  In  Scotland 
during  the  few  years  he  taught  there  he  had  among  his 
boys  David  Wilkie,  afterward  the  famous  painter,  and 
Capt.  Robert  Barclay  of  Lake  Erie  fame.  In  Canada  Sir 
John  Beverley  Robinson,  Chief  Justice  Sir  James  B.  Ma- 
caulay,  and  the  Hon.  Judge  Jones  attended  his  classes. 
The  friendship  of  these  men  and  scores  like  them  he  re 
tained  until  death  dissolved  mere  earthly  ties,  and  Sir 
David  Wilkie  often  asserted  that  to  Bishop  Strachan  he 
owed  everything.  The  good  Bishop  died  at  Toronto  in 
1867.  To  the  end  he  preserved  the  Aberdeen  dialect  in 
all  its  freshness,  and  a  stranger,  hearing  his  accent,  might 
have  been  excused  for  thinking  he  was  listening-  to  one 
who  was  fresh  from  the  "  City  of  Bon  Accord."  "  Bishop 
Strachan,"  writes  one  who  knew  him,  "  when  he  came  to 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.  171 

Canada,  taught  school  in  Cornwall,  and  educated  some 
of  the  best  men  we  have  ever  had  in  Canada.  There  are 
few  of  them  left,  I  am  sorry  to  say.  What  was  curious 
about  the  old  Bishop  was,  he  never  lost  the  Aberdeen  ac 
cent,  although  he  thought  he  had.  I  have  heard  him 
preach.  In  pronouncing  the  benediction  he  always  said : 
'  The  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding, 
keep  your  Herts/  Many  years  ago  he  had  a  clergy 
man  come  from  Aberdeen.  He  asked  him:  '  Far  dae 
ye  come  fae?"  The  minister  said:  '  Fae  Eberdeen.1 
After  asking  some  more  questions  the  Bishop  insisted 
on  the  clergyman  getting  clear  of  his  Scotch  accent, 
adding:  *  I  had  some  trouble  in  getting  clear  of  it,  but 
I  have  none  of  it  now  ' ;  yet  all  this  was  said  in  the  broad 
est  '  Eberdeen  '  dialect." 

Turning  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  we  find  the 
Scot  flourishing  there  as  elsewhere.  In  the  Lower  Prov 
inces  few  names  are  held  in  more  kindly  remembrance 
than  Bishop  Angus  McEachern  of  Charlottetown,  Bishop 
Ronald  McDonald  of  Pictou,  or  Bishop  William  Fraser 
of  Antigonish,  Vicar  Apostolic  of  Nova  Scotia  in  1821. 
The  latter  deserves  to  be  honored  by  Scotsmen,  for  he 
certainly  suffered  much  for  "  puir  auld  Scotland's  sake." 
In  fact,  it  was  complained  of  him  at  Rome  that  he  de 
voted  himself  exclusively  to  the  Scotch  members  of  his 
flock,  for  a  long  time  hardly  recognizing  any  others,  and 
finally  rarely  journeyed  outside  of  the  Scotch  settlement 
at  Antigonish.  He  seemed  to  have  a  special  aversion  to 
Irish  Roman  Catholics. 

In  point  of  devotion  to  duty,  liberality  of  views,  and 
earnestness  of  purpose,  no  fault  could  be  found  with 
Bishop  Alexander  MacDonell,  who  was  born  at  Glen 
Urquhart,  near  the  shore  of  Loch  Ness,  in  1769,  and  is 
said  to  have  belonged  to  the  family  of  Glengarry.  Long 
before  he  was  consecrated  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of 
Kingston,  at  Montreal  in  1826,  he  had  done  rare  service 
to  Canada  by  inducing  Highlanders  to  settle  in  its  wild 
lands,  and  he  had  seen  active  service  in  Ireland  as  Chap 
lain  in  a  regiment  of  Catholics.  In  fact,  his  services  were 
such  that  he  was  publicly  thanked  by  the  Prince  Regent. 


172  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

He  was  a  thoroughly  patriotic  Scotsman,  and  one  of  his 
earliest  undertakings  was  the  formation  of  a  Highland 
Society  in  Ontario,  of  which  he  became  President,  and 
which  was  designed  to  be  of  real  use  to  settlers  and 
intending  settlers.  He  built  no  fewer  than  forty-eight 
churches  and  established  missions  at  every  point.  He  had 
a  profound  faith  in  the  wonderful  future  of  Canada,  and 
believed  in  building  the  foundations  of  the  Church  he 
served  so  loyally  on  a  scale  worthy  of  that  future.  Per 
sonally  he  was  a  kindly  man,  who  made  friends  wherever 
he  went,  and  his  death,  in  1840,  while  revisiting  his  native 
land,  was  regretted  by  all  classes  in  the  community. 

"  Bishop  MacDonell,"  once  wrote  a  correspondent  to 
a  Canadian  newspaper,  "  was  a  very  kind-hearted  man. 
He  was  a  great  means  of  settling  the  part  of  Canada 
called  Glengarry.  Some  of  them  were  more  than  ordi 
nary  big,  strong  men,  and  the  present  generation  of  them 
are  worthy  of  their  sires.  I  never  heard  that  he  was 
particular  to  have  them  all  Roman  Catholics.  There  are 
a  number  of  Presbyterians  amongst  them,  and  they  have 
a  good  congregation  in  Alexandria.  The  good  Bishop 
gave  all  the  first  Roman  Catholic  settlers  in  Glengarry 
a  copy  of  the  Holy  Bible,  which  the  Presbyterian  clergy 
man  told  me  they  would  not  part  with  for  any  money. 

"  I  have  been  told  many  good  stories  about  the  Bishop 
by  an  old  French  friend.  I  will  only  mention  one.  In 
the  early  settlement  of  the  County  of  Kent  the  roads 
were  very  bad  and  there  were  very  few  places  to  stop  at. 
The  Bishop  was  exploring  through  the  county  on  horse 
back,  and,  being  benighted,  he  had  to  ask  a  farmer  for 
lodgings  for  the  night.  After  getting  supper,  and  time 
to  go  to  bed,  the  farmer  said  he  would  show  him  his  bed. 
The  Bishop  said:  '  Are  you  a  Scotchman  and  don't  take 
the  "  Book  "  before  going  to  bed?  '  The  Scotchman  was 
ashamed  to  confess  that  he  did  not.  The  Bishop  took 
the  Bible  and  read  and  prayed  with  and  for  the  family. 
The  farmer  was  astonished  when  the  Bishop  told  him 
who  he  was." 

Bishop  Gilmour  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  who  died  in  Flor 
ida  in  1891,  was  born  in  Glasgow  in  1824,  and  moved 


MINISTERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    TEACHERS.          173 

in  early  life,  with  his  parents,  to  New  Glasgow.  He  was 
educated  in  Canada.  After  many  years  spent  in  mission 
ary  work  he  was  assigned  to  the  pastorate  of  St.  Patrick's 
in  Cincinnati  in  1857,  and  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Cleveland  in  1872.  His  administration  of  the  diocese 
was  most  successful,  and  was  particularly  noted  for  the 
manner  in  which  it  developed  the  system  of  parochial 
schools. 

A  Catholic  prelate  need  not  be  a  Bishop,  and  the  Very 
Rev.  Monsignor  Seton  of  St.  Joseph's,  Jersey  City,  is  a 
case  in  point.  Descended  from  the  ancient  noble  fam 
ily  of  Winton,  Dr.  Seton's  ancestors  came  to  America  be 
fore  the  Revolution,  carrying  with  them  many  historical 
relics  of  the  family  to  which  they  were  proud  to  belong 
in  spite  of  its  misfortunes.  One  of  these  American  set 
tlers,  William  Seton,  (of  whom  Dr.  Seton  is  the  great- 
grandson,)  was  from  1766  to  1771  an  officer  in  the  New 
York  St.  Andrew's  Society,  and  to  the  present  day  the 
members  of  the  family  are  proud  to  recall  the  fact  that 
their  forbears  hailed  from  "  dear  old  Scotland." 


4 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ARTISTS     AND     ARCHITECTS. 

PAINTINGS  from  Scotland  by  Scottish  artists  do  not 
seem  nowadays  to  find  much  acceptance  in  America. 
They  are  rarely  found  in  the  catalogues  of  the  many  art 
sales  in  New  York  or  Boston  or  the  other  large  cities, 
and  in  the  art  dealers'  establishments  the  best-known 
painters  of  Scotland  are  unknown  either  by  name  or  by 
example.  In  art  circles,  in  periodicals  devoted  to  art, 
and  in  the  columns  of  newspapers  which  make  a  feature 
of  artistic  matters,  hardly  any  attention  is  paid  to  collect 
ing-  and  presenting  news  from  the  Scottish  studios,  and 
even  the  gossip  of  American  professional  critics  seldom 
troubles  itself  concerning  what  may  be  passing  in  Scot 
land,  where  so  many  recognized  masters  have  gained 
their  reputation  and  established  a  national  claim  to  ar 
tistic  recognition.  The  amateur  lovers  and  professional 
creators  of  art  in  America  talk  glibly  of  Chalon,  of  Pal- 
maroli,  of  Gamier,  of  Gerome,  but  of  Thomson,  Phillip, 
Macnee,  MacCullough,  Allan,  Faed,  or  any  of  the  recog 
nized  Scottish  masters  they  seem  to  know  nothing. 

This  is  singular  when  we  consider  that  so  many  other 
professional,  as  well  as  business  and  working,  men  from 
Scotland,  and  Scottish  products  generally,  find  such  a 
kindly  reception  in  America.  The  Scottish  artisan  is  al 
ways  welcomed  in  every  section  of  the  United  States  as 
a  superior,  thorough,  and  industrious  workman,  one 
with  a  degree  of  intelligence  above  his  fellows;  the  Scot 
tish  farmer  is  hailed  as  an  accession  in  each  agricultural 
community,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is  not  an 
American  steamer  afloat  on  which  the  services  of  Scotch 
engineers  are  not  in  use  or  in  demand.  In  the  higher 
174 


ARTISTS     AND     ARCHITECTS.  175 

walks  of  life  the  influence  of  Scotland  is  everywhere 
seen.  Scottish  architecture  has  been  closely  studied, 
and  the  old  Baronial  style  has  been  copied,  adapted,  or 
"  applied  "  to  the  majority  of  American  modern  villas, 
and,  in  fact,  along  with  the  so-called  Colonial  style,  was 
the  main  foundation  for  the  exteriors  of  such  places  un 
til  recently  supplanted  by  the  nondescript  "  Queen 
Anne  "  and  pseudo-Elizabethan  styles.  Even  in  many 
public  buildings,  although  a  sort  of  mongrel  renaissance 
is  the  prevailing  fad,  the  towers  and  peaks  and  gables  o£ 
the  Scottish  school  take  the  place  of  the  "  Grecian  "  front 
elevations,  with  their  wooden  pillars  and  impossible  pedi 
ments.  Scotch  financiers  stand  above  the  tumults,  the 
reactions,  the  bull-and-bear  movements  of  the  stock  ex 
changes,  veritable  pillars  of  strength  in  a  seething,  some 
times  repulsive,  sea  of  dishonesty  and  dishonor.  Scottish 
theology  has  been  gratefully  accepted  by  Americans, 
and  not  even  in  Scotland  have  the  writings  of  such  men 
as  Prof.  A.  B.  Bruce,  Dr.  Calderwood,  the  late  Dr.  John 
Ker,  Dr.  Oswald  Dykes,  and  Dr.  Buchanan  more  ap 
preciative  readers.  Scottish  poetry,  too,  is  also  in  great 
vogue;  Robert  Buchanan,  for  instance,  used  to  be  a 
favorite;  several  editions  of  "  Olrig  Grange"  were  read 
ily  disposed  of  when  that  poem  first  appeared;  Shairp's 
verses  also  found  a  ready  sale,  and  even  Pollok's 
"  Course  of  Time  "  has  been  printed  in  a  dozen  different 
forms.  There  are  a  half  a  dozen  editions  of  Aytoun's 
"  Lays,"  and  there  are  numerous  editions  of  Motherwell, 
Montgomery,  Campbell,  and  most  of  our  poets,  printed 
and  sold  in  this  country.  Scots  songs  are  sung  on  every 
concert  platform,  and  students  of  Burns  are  as  numer 
ous  as  in  Scotland.  Indeed,  probably  the  most  ambi 
tious  edition  of  the  works  of  the  Ayrshire  bard — six  large 
volumes  with  notes,  steel  engravings,  and  all  sorts  of  ed 
itorial  paraphernalia — was  published  in  Philadelphia  only 
a  few  years  ago.  Of  the  Waverley  Novels  there  are  over 
twenty-five  distinct  editions  in  the  market,  and  editions 
of  Scott's  poetry  seem  to  grace,  either  completely  or  sin 
gly,  every  publisher's  catalogue.  One  firm  has  printed 
over  300,000  copies  of  Barrie's  works,  and  there  is  a 


176  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

choice  of  various  editions  of  any  of  the  writings  of  Ste 
venson  or  Black.  Excepting-  art,  everything  Scotch, 
from  curling  to  philosophy,  seems  to  find  congenial  soil 
in  America. 

This  lack  of  appreciation  of  Scottish  art  applies  as 
much  to  loan  exhibitions  and  museums  and  public  galler 
ies,  of  which  better  things  might  be  expected,  as  to  private 
collections  and  the  dealers'  offerings  or  stock  in  trade.  In 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  at  New  York,  the 
greatest  institution  of  its  kind  in  America,  not  a  single 
work  painted  in  Scotland  by  a  Scottish  artist  is  to  be 
found.  Even  in  the  large  and  costly  collection  of  Miss 
Catharine  Lorillard  Wolfe,  which  by  terms  of  its  be 
quest  to  the  museum  is  kept  distinct  from  the  other  pict 
ures,  and  which  is  undoubtedly  the  crowning  artistic 
feature  of  the  institution,  the  absence  of  Scottish  art  is 
equally  apparent. 

In  the  Lenox  Library  of  New  York,  founded  by  a 
Scotsman  and  still  mainly  directed  by  a  Scotsman,  we 
find  a  somewhat  similar  condition  of  affairs.  True,  the 
collection  there  is  not  large,  but  every  picture  on  view 
is  supposed  to  be  a  representative  one,  and  ought  to  be, 
if  placed  on  exhibition  in  accordance  with  the  ideas  on 
which  the  library  was  founded.  In  such  a  collection  we 
would  naturally  expect  to  find  some  Scotch  examples, 
yet,  instead,  we  have  some  rather  paltry  sketches  by  Sir 
David  Wilkie,  of  no  interest  to  the  public  and  of  little 
value  even  to  art  students,  certainly  not  representative  of 
the  man;  a  painting  of  the  Scottish  regalia  which  is  at 
tributed  to  Wilkie,  but  with  which  he  had  no  more  to 
do  than  the  man  in  the  moon,  and  a  couple  of  specimens 
(one  of  them  doubtful)  of  Sir  Henry  Raeburn.  These 
things,  with  a  very  commonplace  bust  of  Scott  from 
SteelPs  studio,  but  not  his  handiwork,  and  a  really  good 
bust  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  evidently  modeled  by  Steell  him 
self,  are  all  that  represent  Scottish  art  in  what  might  be 
or  ought  to  be  the  great  repository  of  that  art  in  Amer 
ica.  What  has  been  said  of  these  institutions  may  be 
held  to  apply  to  all  the  other  art  centres  in  the  country. 
Even  at  the  Chicago  World's  Fair  Scottish  artists  were 


ARTISTS     AND     ARCHITECTS.  177 

poorly  represented.  There  were  several  Scotch  canvases 
in  the  British  section,  but  not  one  that  really  command 
ed  attention.  So  far  as  art  was  concerned,  Poland  far 
outstripped  Scotland  in  excellence,  variety,  and  in  the 
evident  genius  of  the  artists. 

Scottish  sculpture  is  no  more  highly  regarded  than 
the  sister  art  of  painting.  Not  long  ago  a  replica  of  Ste 
venson's  fine  statue  of  Sir  William  Wallace,  which  is  on 
the  corbel  over  the  entrance  to  the  hero's  monument  on 
Abbey  Craig,  near  Stirling,  was  unveiled  in  Baltimore, 
and  the  pose  of  the  figure  is  laughed  at  in  every  circle 
that  makes  any  pretention  to  art  culture.  The  pose, 
they  say,  is  theatrical,  the  drawn  sword  is  too  prominent 
a  feature,  the  figure  itself  is  stiff,  there  is  nothing  below 
the  armor,  and  so  on.  Of  course  people  who  know 
why  the  figure  and  sword  were  posed  as  they  are  and 
the  latter  made  so  prominent  will  admit  that  the  artist 
made  the  most  of  his  original  opportunity  for  a  particu 
lar  effect.  But  Americans  do  not  know  this,  and  so 
they  criticise  the  figure  as  they  find  it — standing  on  an 
ordinary  pedestal  in  the  midst  of  a  park  landscape — 
and  find  much  to  sneer  at  and  condemn.  If  they  had  said 
the  pose  was  simply  unsuited  to  the  location  in  which  the 
replica  is  placed,  every  one  would  have  agreed  with  them, 
and  an  additional  argument  against  the  use  of  replicas 
would  have  been  added  to  the  stock  on  hand.  But  when 
they  fail  to  take  the  change  of  position  into  account 
and  simply  condemn  on  general  principles  their  criti 
cism  is  not  worth  considering  from  an  artistic  standpoint, 
although,  commercially,  it  is  to  be  regretted.  Sir  John 
Steell  is  represented  in  America  by  two  statues  in  Cen 
tral  Park,  New  York,  one  a  replica  in  bronze  of  the 
figure  of  Scott,  which,  in  marble,  sits  under  the  arch  of 
the  monument  at  Edinburgh,  and  the  other  his  figure 
of  Burns,  of  which  there  are  replicas  in  Dundee  and 
London.  Those  who  know  anything  of  the  inside  work 
ings  of  Steell's  studio  while  the  Burns  statue  was  in 
process  of  development  will  not  be  anxious,  however 
patriotic  they  may  be,  to  claim  that  statue  as  one  of  even 
his  second-rate  works,  for  it  must  be  confessed  that,  while 


178  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

in  parts  it  shows  the  genius  of  the  sculptor,  it  certainly 
is,  as  a  whole,  disappointing.  His  statue  of  Scott,  how 
ever,  has  long  since  passed  the  gauntlet  of  criticism,  and 
been  accepted  as  a  masterpiece,  in  spite  of  the  clumsi 
ness  of  the  plaid  and  the  stiff  massiveness  of  the  whole 
figure.  Yet  in  New  York  there  is  a  sort  of  trades  union 
society  of  local  sculptors,  which  openly  advocates  the  re 
moval  of  both  these  figures  to  a  less  prominent  place, 
and  would  not  mourn  were  they  stolen  from  their  pe 
destals  some  night  and  broken  up  beyond  hope  of  re 
pair.  One  guide  book,  describing  these  statues  says: 
'  They  are  coarsely  modeled  by  a  man  with  a  local  fame 
in  Scotland,  but  no  artist."  This  criticism,  it  must  be 
remembered,  was  written  in  a  city  which  contains  more 
atrocious  examples  of  the  sculptor's  art  than  any  other 
in  the  world,  such  caricatures  as  the  bronze  figures  of  S. 
S.  Cox,  Roscoe  Conkling,  Horace  Greeley,  W.  E.  Dodge, 
and  Secretary  Seward,  which  seek  honor  and  recognition 
in  the  most  prominent  thoroughfares.  Beside  any  of 
them  Steell's  work,  even  his  poorest,  rises  as  the  mod 
eling  of  a  master. 

The  trouble,  however,  does  not  lie  now,  nor  has  it  ever 
lain,  with  any  prejudice  on  the  part  of  the  people  against 
either  Scottish  art  or  artists  as  such.  It  is  rather  the  re 
sult  of  a  fashionable  current  directing  the  public  taste 
toward  Continental  schools  and  a  lack  of  enterprise  on  the 
part  of  the  artists  in  Scotland  themselves  in  not  catering 
to  the  wants  and  whims  or  tastes  of  the  people.  Scottish 
artists  residing  in  America  have,  from  the  very  beginning 
of  its  history,  really  attained  as  much  honor  and  success 
as  their  countrymen  have  won  in  other  walks  of  life. 
The  names  which  follow  will  abundantly  demonstrate  the 
truth  of  this  assertion. 

So  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  discover,  the  first  Scotch 
painter  to  make  his  home  in  America  was  John  Smibert, 
who  was  born  in  the  Grassmarket  of  Edinburgh  in  1684. 
He  served  an  apprenticeship  as  a  house  painter,  but  his 
artistic  ambition  led  him  to  aspire  higher,  and  he  went 
to  London,  where,  after  a  time,  he  made  a  comfortable 
living  by  copying  paintings  for  dealers.  Then,  after  he 


ARTISTS     AND     ARCHITECTS.  179 

had  saved  a  little  money,  he  went  to  Italy,  where  he 
studied  hard,  copied  many  of  the  most  famous  works  of 
the  old  masters,  and  made  many  friends,  among  them 
Dr.  Berkeley,  afterward  Bishop  of  Cloyne.  In  1728  he 
crossed  to  America  in  the  company  of  that  divine,  with 
the  idea  of  becoming  professor  of  drawing,  &c.,  in  a 
university  which  it  was  proposed  to  found  at  Bermuda. 
While  the  negotiations  regarding  that  seat  of  learning 
were  in  progress,  Srnibert  took  up  his  residence  at  New 
port.  When  the  university  scheme  was  abandoned  the 
artist  settled  in  Boston,  where  he  acquired  not  only  repu 
tation,  but  a  comfortable  fortune  by  his  art.  Horace 
Walpole,  in  his  "  Anecdotes  of  Painting,"  describes  him 
as  "  a  silent  and  modest  man,  who  abhorred  the  finesse  of 
some  of  his  profession."  A  number  of  his  paintings  are 
still  to  be  seen  in  Yale  University,  in  the  Boston  Museum 
of  Fine  Arts,  and  in  the  houses  of  many  old  New  Eng 
land  families.  He  married  a  lady  belonging  to  a  well- 
known  Boston  family,  and  had  two  children.  One  of 
them,  Nathaniel,  gave  promise  of  attaining  celebrity  as 
an  artist,  but  he  died  at  an  early  age.  Smibert  died  in 


. 

Smibert  excelled  as  a  portrait  painter.  America  had  not 
in  his  time  got  as  far  advanced  in  a  love  of  art  to  affect 
to  admire  efforts  that  were  not  to  a  certain  degree  utili 
tarian,  useful,  and  productive  of  dignity,  as  well  as  being 
ornamental.  The  most  famous,  perhaps,  of  American 
portrait  painters  was  Gilbert  Charles  Stuart,  who  was 
descended  from  a  Scotch  family  and  was  born  in  Rhode 
Island  in  1756.  He  went  to  Scotland  when  a  lad  and 
studied  painting  there,  but  when  his  teacher  died  he  re 
turned  to  America  and  made  his  living  by  painting  por 
traits  at  Newport.  In  1778  he  crossed  over  to  London 
and  attracted  the  attention  of  Benjamin  West,  the  great 
est  of  all  American  artists,  and  from  that  time  he  was 
able  to  date  his  success  in  life.  His  own  studio  in  Lon 
don,  which  he  opened  in  1781,  was  a  fashionable  resort, 
and  he  painted  portraits  of  King  George  III.,  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  (George  IV.,)  and  many  of  the  most  celebrated 
characters  of  the  time,  He  also  painted,  in  Paris,  a 


180  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

portrait  of  Louis  XVI.,  the  unfortunate  sovereign 
on  whom  the  wrongs  and  misgovernment  of  a  race 
of  Kings  were  avenged  at  the  French  Revolution. 
Stuart  settled  down  in  his  native  country  in  1793  and 
painted  many  of  its  most  distinguished  sons.  His  por 
traits  of  Washington  are  generally  accepted  as  the  best 
which  have  been  made  of  that  great  and  good  man,  and 
by  them  Stuart's  name  has  been  kept  prominently  before 
the  people  of  the  United  States.  He  died  at  Boston  in 
1828. 

James  Smillie,  who  may  be  regarded  as  the  American 
founder  of  an  artistic  family,  landed  at  Quebec  in  1821. 
His  father  and  elder  brother,  who  were  with  him,  were 
jewelers,  and  they  at  once  went  into  business  in  that 
quaint,  historic  town.  James  did  the  engraving  and 
chasing  for  the  establishment.  His  abilities  won  the 
notice  of  Lord  Dalhousie,  then  Governor  General  of 
Canada,  and  that  nobleman  sent  him  to  London  to 
study.  Smillie  failed  to  get  the  sort  of  instructor  he 
wanted,  and  he  returned  to  his  native  city  of  Edinburgh, 
worked  there  for  five  months,  and  then  rejoined  his  rela 
tives  in  Quebec.  In  1829  he  settled  in  New  York  and 
established  himself  as  a  line  engraver.  An  engraving 
after  Weir's  picture  of  "  The  Convent  Gate  "  brought 
him  into  favorable  notice,  and  he  soon  had  all  the  work 
on  hand  he  could  accomplish.  In  1830  he  became  an  as 
sociate  of  the  National  Academy,  and  an  Academician  in 
1851.  Among  his  most  successful  engravings  are  "  Mount 
Washington,"  after  Kennett;  "  Dover  Plains,"  after  Du- 
rand,  and  4<  The  Rocky  Mountains,"  after  Bierstadt.  Mr. 
Smillie  in  his  latter  years  lived  in  retirement  at  Pough- 
keepsie,  where  he  died  in  1884.  There  is  no  doubt  he 
was  the  most  successful  line  engraver  of  his  time  in 
America,  and  one  of  his  brothers,  William  dimming 
Smillie,  was  long  equally  recognized  as  a  leader  among 
the  bank-note  engravers  of  this  country  and  Canada. 

Of  Mr.  Smillie's  sons,  two  have  carried  on  to  the 
present  day  the  reputation  he  so  deservedly  won  for  the 
family  name.  James  D.  Smillie,  who  was  born  in  New 
York  in  1835,  made  his  mark  by  his  engravings  of  Dar- 


ARTISTS     AND     ARCHITECTS.  l^l 

ley's  illustrations  to  Cooper's  novels.  He  became  a  Na 
tional  Academician  in  1876.  Besides  being  noted  as  an 
engraver,  J.  D.  Smillie  has  won  much  success  as  a  painter 
in  oil  and  water  colors,  and  such  works  as  "  The  Cliffs 
of  Normandy,"  in  oil,  and  "  The  Passing  Herd,"  in  water 
color,  have  given  him  a  place  among  the  most  praise 
worthy  artists  of  the  country.  He  was  President  of  the 
Water  Color  Society  in  1873  and  1878.  Mr.  Smillie  has 
also  shown  exquisite  skill  as  an  etcher,  and  the  best- 
known  specimen  of  his  work  in  that  method  is  the  etch 
ing  of  the  magnificent  statue  of  Robert  Burns  at  Al 
bany,  the  work  of  his  friend,  Charles  Calverley.  His 
brother  William  M.  was  eminent  as  a  letter  engraver, 
arid  was  General  Manager  of  the  American  Bank  Note 
Company  when  he  died,  in  1884.  The  third  son  of  James 
Smillie,  George  Henry  Smillie,  is  a  National  Academi 
cian  and  a  master  of  oil  and  water  color,  and  such  works 
as  "  A  Florida  Lagoon,"  "  A  Lake  in  the  W^oods,"  and 
"  Under  the  Pines  of  the  Yosemite  "  show  that  he  has 
inherited  a  full  share  of  the  wonderful  talent  of  the 
family. 

Among  landscape  artists  in  America  none  have  been 
accorded  a  higher  position  by  critics  and  the  public  alike 
than  William  Hart,  who  died  at  Mount  Vernon  June  17, 
1894,  in  his  seventy-second  year.  When  a  boy  his  par 
ents  removed  from  Kilmarnock,  and,  crossing  the  At 
lantic,  settled  at  Albany,  where  William,  after  a  brief 
schooling,  was  apprenticed  to  a  coachbuilder.  He  was 
then  instructed  in  the  art  of  decorating  carriage  panels, 
and  that  employment  awakened  his  artistic  tastes.  A 
severe  illness  made  him  leave  the  coachmaker's  employ 
ment  when  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  on  recovering  he 
opened  a  studio  at  Troy,  where  he  did  both  portrait  and 
landscape  work,  and  by  dint  of  patient  devotion  to  his 
subjects  not  only  earned  a  livelihood,  but  steadily  added 
to  his  knowledge  of  his  art.  A  visit  to  Scotland  com 
pleted  his  artistic  education  and  training,  and  after  three 
years'  sketching  there  he  returned,  in  1853,  to  America 
with  several  portfolios  filled  with  drawings  and  "  bits," 
and  suggestions  for  future  works.  He  opened,  a  studio 


182  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

in  New  York,  and  in  1855  was  elected  an  Associate  of 
the  National  Academy.  Three  years  later  he  was  chosen 
an  Academician.  His  works  betokened  careful,  thought 
ful,  and  conscientious  \vork,  and  in  country  scenes  intro 
ducing-  animal  life  he  particularly  excelled.  There  was 
nothing  outre  in  his  methods;  no  straining  after  mere 
color  effects,  no  desire  to  startle  by  following  the  dic 
tates  of  some  of  the  new  schools,  which,  now  and  again, 
in  his  time,  as  to  the  present  day,  strive  to  capture  pub 
lic  attention  by  some  royal  road  to  excellence,  which  ends 
in  bathos — the  Pre-Raphaelite,  for  instance.  Hart's  ex 
cellence  was  the  result  of  a  careful  desire  to  reproduce 
nature  and  show  on  his  canvases  every  little  detail, 
which,  taken  together,  make  up  completeness.  Among 
his  most  noted  works,  all  of  which  exemplify  his  tech 
nique,  his  devotion  to  the  highest  principles  of  art  and 
his  mastery  of  that  art,  are:  "  Coming  From  the  Mill," 
:'  The  September  Snow,"  "  Autumn  in  the  Woods  of 
Maine,"  "  Scene  on  the  Peabody  River,"  "  Twilight  on 
the  Brook,"  "  Goshen,  N.  H.";  "Twilight,"  'A  Brook 
Study,"  4'  Easter  Sky  at  Sunset,"  water  color;  u  The  Gold 
en  Hour,"  "  Morning  in  the  Clouds/'  "  Keene  Valley/' 
"  Cattle  Scenes,"  "  Landscape  with  Jersey  Cattle,"  "  The 
Ford,"  "  Scene  on  Napanock  Creek,"  "  A  Modern  Cin 
derella,"  and  "  After  a  Shower." 

Mr.  Hart  was  equally  great  in  the  use  of  water  color 
as  of  oil.  Indeed,  the  former,  perhaps,  was  his  favorite 
mode  of  artistic  expression,  and  his  love  for  it  led  him  to 
take  an  active  part  in  the  formation  of  the  American  So 
ciety  of  Water  Colorists,  of  which  he  was  President  for 
three  terms,  1870-73.  For  many  years  also  he  was  Pres 
ident  of  the  Brooklyn  Academy  of  Design. 

A  brother  of  this  noted  painter,  James  McDougall 
Hart,  has  gained  equal  fame  in  the  annals  of  American 
art.  Born  at  Kilmarnock  in  1828,  he,  like  his  brother, 
crossed  the  Atlantic  in  boyhood  and  began  life  in  the 
service  of  a  coachbuilder  at  Albany.  In  1851  he  went 
to  Dusseldorf  and  studied  art,  and  on  his  return  settled 
in  Albany,  where  he  opened  a  studio.  After  about  four 
years'  struggle  in  that  good  old  phlegmatic  Dutch  town, 


ARTISTS     AND     ARCHITECTS.  183 

he  thought  his  opportunity  for  the  future  lay  in  New 
York,  and  there  he  removed,  and  soon  won  a  prominent 
place  among  local  artists.  His  pastoral  scenes,  especially, 
won  him  popularity,  and  as  a  landscape  painter  none  of 
his  contemporaries  excelled  him  for  his  faithfulness  to 
nature  and  the  poetic  glamour  he  threw  into  most  of  his 
work.  Like  his  brother,  he  never  tried  any  of  the  tricks 
which  so  many  artists  attempt  to  win  attention,  and  it 
is  noted  that  one  can  study  any  of  the  productions  of 
this  painter's  easel  and  find  the  attractiveness  of  the  sub 
ject  growing  as  a  result  of  that  study.  Such  is  notably 
the  case  with  his  "  Summer  Memory  of  Berkshire " 
and  his  "  Indian  Summer,"  both  of  which  won  deserved 
applause  when  exhibited  at  the  Paris  Salon  in  1878.  They 
are  poems  as  well  as  pictures,  and  arouse  many  pleasing 
thoughts  in  the  mind  of  the  spectator  who  has  any 
power  of  thought  at  all.  So,  too,  with  the  masterpiece 
which  he  exhibited  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition  in  1876 — • 
"  A  Misty  Morning  " — a  work  which  stood  out  in  bold 
relief  among  the  contributions  of  American  artists  to  the 
collection  there  displayed  for  its  wonderful  interpretation 
of  one  of  nature's  moods.  Some  affect  to  find  little  to 
praise  or  enlarge  upon  in  such  works  as  that  of  Mr.  Hart, 
because  they  are  so  true  to  nature  that  they  awaken  noth 
ing  discordant  in  the  mind  or  present  anything  particular 
ly  odd  to  attract  the  eye.  Their  very  fidelity  is  apt  to  make 
them  be  overlooked  in  an  exhibition,  while  a  flaring  can 
vas,  with  an  unearthly  green  foreground,  a  wooden-like 
figure  in  a  glaring  yellow  gown,  and  a  sky  with  a  series 
of  streaks  of  all  the  colors  on  the  palette,  would  attract 
a  gaping  crowd  and  charm  the  dilletantes  and  the  news 
paper  art  critics,  the  latter  mainly  because  it  would  give 
them  a  chance  to  display  their  stock  of  artistic  slang. 
Such  paintings  as  that  of  "  Cattle  Going  Home  "  are  not 
enthusiastically  praised  for  the  same  reason  that  the 
Scotch  sewing  woman  saw  nothing  to  admire  in  Burns's 
poem,  "  The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  because  it  told 
just  what  she  saw  done  every  night  in  her  own  father's 
house  since  ever  she  could  remember.  So  long  as  Scot 
tish  art  in  America  is  represented  by  the  examples  we 


184  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

have  named,  and  by  such  paintings  as  "  Moonrise  in  the 
Adirondacks,"  "  A  Breezy  Day  on  the  Road,"  "  On  the 
North  Shore,"  and  a  dozen  others  from  the  same  studio, 
her  lovers  will  have  no  occasion  to  "  hing  their  heids." 

Another  landscape  painter  of  note  was  James  Hope, 
who  was  born  not  far  from  Abbotsford  in  1818,  and  set 
tled  on  a  farm  in  Canada,  along1  with  his  parents,  when 
a  boy.  He  was  for  a  time  a  teacher  in  a  seminary  at 
Castleton,  Vt.,  and  it  was  not  until  1848  that  he  found 
it  possible  to  put  into  practice  an  ambition  which  had 
long  possessed  him  and  devote  his  time  entirely  to  art. 
After  considerable  struggles  to  gain  a  footing,  he  took 
up  his  abode  in  New  York  in  1853,  and  soon  found  a 
market  for  his  canvases.  In  1865  he  was  chosen  an  As 
sociate  of  the  National  Academy,  and  such  works  as 
"  Rainbow  Falls,"  "  The  Forest  Glen,"  or  "  The  Gem  of 
the  Forest,"  amply  proved  his  genius  for  landscape  paint 
ing.  From  1872  till  his  death  Mr.  Hope  spent  his  time 
in  quiet  retirement  at  Watkins  Glen,  New  York. 

In  a  purely  popular  sense  no  Scottish-American  artist 
ever  commanded  so  wide  attention  as  Alexander  Hay 
Ritchie,  who  died  at  New  Haven,  Conn.,  Sept.  19,  1895. 
He  was  born  at  Glasgow  in  1822,  and  in  early  life  removed 
to  Edinburgh  and  was  educated  in  Heriot's  Hospital. 
He  was  apprenticed  to  a  firm  of  machinists,  but  devel 
oped  a  taste  for  art,  and  studied  under  Sir  William  Allan, 
one  of  the  most  famous  of  the  historical  painters  of  Scot 
land.  In  1843  he  settled  in  the  United  States,  after  a 
short  stay  in  Canada,  and  soon  afterward  took  up  his 
residence  in  Brooklyn,  where  he  resided  until  just  before 
his  death.  He  quickly  acquired  high  rank  as  an  engraver 
in  stipple  and  mezzotint,  and  gradually  won  a  reputa 
tion  as  an  original  painter  in  oils,  particularly  of  por 
traits  and  historic  scenes  in  which  figures  predominated. 
His  popularity  reached  its  height  b\  his  painting  of  the 
"  Death  of  Lincoln,"  and  such  works  as  "  Mercy  Knock 
ing  at  the  Gate,"  "  Fitting  Out  Moses  for  the  Fair,'* 
showed  that  he  possessed  the  charms  of  fancy  as  well  as 
the  graces  of  art.  His  painting  of  "  Washington  and  His 
Generals  "  proved  equally  popular,  and  by  means  of  his 


ARTISTS     AND     ARCHITECTS.  185 

own  engraving  of  it,  that  patriotic  group  now  decorates 
thousands  of  homes  throughout  the  American  conti 
nent.  Asa  portrait  painter,  in  which  work  his  "  Dr.  Mc- 
Cosh,"  "  Henry  Clay/'  and  "  Professor  Charles  Hodge 
of  Princeton"  are  notable  examples,  Mr.  Ritchie  left 
some  particularly  creditable  examples  of  his  skill,  while 
as  a  book  illustrator  his  graver  was  constantly  employed 
for  many  years  prior  to  his  death. 

Pleasing  memories  are  recalled  by  such  examples  of 
pure  art  as  "  The  Palisades,"  "  Sugar  Loaf  Mountain/' 
"  Autumn  in  the  Adirondacks,"  and  other  pictures  of 
John  Williamson,  an  artist  who  found  in  and  around  the 
magnificent  scenery  of  the  Hudson  constant  employment 
for  his  brush,  and  a  perpetual  incentive  to  attain  the 
highest  possible  ideal  of  his  art.  He  studied  that  noble 
stream  from  its  source  to  the  sea,  and  knew  it,  and  could 
reproduce  it  in  all  its  moods.  Williamson  was  born  in 
the  very  inartistic  region  of  Tolcross,  Glasgow,  in  1827, 
and  died  at  Glenwood-on-Hudson  in  1885,  nearly  all  of 
his  life  being  passed  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  as  he 
was  taken  from  his  native  land  while  a  child. 

Another  artist  who  had  Glasgow  for  his  birthplace  was 
Thomas  Lachlan  Smith,  whose  specialty  was  Winter 
scenes,  and  who  contributed  two  notable  pictures  to  the 
collection  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition —  '  The  Deserted 
House  "  and  "  The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes."  Smith  received 
his  artistic  training  in  the  studio  of  George  H.  Boughton 
(now  winning  yearly  successes  in  London)  at  Albany, 
and  he  opened  a  studio  in  that  city  in  1859.  In  J862  he 
forsook  Albany  for  New  York,  where  he  died  in  1884, 
having  won  a  recognized  position  among  the  American 
painters  of  his  time. 

So  much  for  painters.  We  may  now,  having  shown 
the  merits  of  the  Scottish-American  "  limners/'  bring  for 
ward  some  instances  of  those  who  have  won  fame  with 
the  chisel  and  molding  tools.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these 
on  our  list  is  John  Crookshanks  King,  who  was  born  in 
the  ancient  and  historic  village  of  Kilwinning,  Ayrshire, 
in  1806,  and  died  in  the  historic  city  of  Boston  in  1882. 
He  was  educated  in  his  native  county,  and  there  served 


186  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

his  apprenticeship  to  his  trade — that  of  machinist.  In 
1829  he  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  for  a  time  was  Super 
intendent  of  factories  in  Louisville  and  Cincinnati.  It 
was  in  1834  that  he  began  to  understand  the  extent  of 
his  genius  for  modeling,  and  in  that  year  he  made  a  clay 
figure  which  so  pleased  Hiram  D.  Powers,  America's 
most  poetic  sculptor,  that  he  advised  him  to  devote  his 
entire  attention  to  such  work.  After  a  brief  residence 
in  New  Orleans,  King  settled  in  Boston  in  1840,  and  in 
that  city  most  of  his  artistic  career  was  spent.  Among  his 
best-known  busts  are  those  of  Daniel  Webster,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  and  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  King  also 
excelled  as  a  maker  of  cameo  portraits  a  branch  of  art 
which  at  present  has  gone  out  of  fashion,  although  there 
are  not  wanting  signs  that  it  will  again  become  a  fad  in 
the  society  world. 

Few  if  the  many  thousands  of  visitors  to  the  memorial 
temple  which  rises  over  the  Doon,  not  far  from  the  Auld 
Brig,  as  a  national  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  genius 
who  gave  fame  to  that  classic  section  of  Ayrshire  by  his 
pen,  know  that  the  two  figures  representing  "  Tarn  o' 
Shanter "  and  "  Souter  Johnnie "  which  are  shown  in 
the  grounds  below  are  the  work  of  a  sculptor  who  died 
on  a  farm  at  Ramapo,  N.  Y.,  in  1850.  James  Thorn,  the 
sculptor  in  question,  ended  his  career  in  that  lonely  spot 
a  sadly  disappointed  man.  He  was  born  in  Ayrshire, 
and  began  life  as  a  stone  mason.  He  acquired  the  art 
of  modeling  mainly  by  his  own  personal  observation  and 
practice,  and  in  1828  produced  the  two  figures  which, 
shown  on  the  banks  of  the  Doon,  have  preserved  his 
name  to  the  present  day.  In  an  artistic  sense  he  never 
advanced  any  further  than  these  statues,  and  such  works 
as  his  figure  of  "  Old  Mortality  "  simply  reproduced  their 
artistic  beauties  and  defects.  It  seems  a  pity  that  Thorn 
did  not  have  the  benefit  of  two  or  three  years'  practical 
training  at  some  of  the  art  centres,  but  fate  denied  him 
the  opportunity,  and  all  his  work  was  done  in  a  narrow 
and  rather  primitive  groove.  But  he  was  a  genius  un 
doubtedly,  and  lacked  merely  the  necessary  study  to  have 
been  able  to  give  full  expression  to  the  ideals  he  so  ear- 


ARTISTS     AND     ARCHITECTS.  18? 

nestly  tried  to  interpret  with  his  chisel.  His  work  was 
very  popular  with  the  people,  but  his  studio  at  Ayr  was 
never  greatly  burdened  with  orders,  and  it  was  in  the 
hope  of  winning  a  more  remunerative  popularity  that  he 
emigrated.  In  America,  however,  there  is  no  trace  of  his 
having  had  any  success  at  all,  or  even  of  his  doing  any 
work. 

A  much  more  modern  instance  of  a  Scottish  sculptor's 
success  in  America  is  that  of  Mr.  J.  M.  Rhind,  son  of  a 
once  well-known  Edinburgh  sculptor.  Mr.  Rhind  set 
tled  in  New  York  from  Edinburgh  in  1888,  and  was  not 
long  in  coming  to  the  front  among  that  city's  sculptors. 
His  most  noted  work — the  King  memorial  fountain  at 
Albany — is  an  elaborate  and  thoughtful  group  of  sculp 
ture,  rather  than  a  single  example,  and  shows  the  artist 
to  be  a  man  of  imagination  as  well  as  of  artistic  ability. 
Its  theme  is  that  of  Moses  striking  the  rock,  and  the 
story  is  completely  told  in  the  attitude  and  composition 
of  all  the  figures,  from  the  majestic  representation  of 
Moses  to  the  sweet  outline  of  the  baby  which  is  getting 
from  its  mother  a  draught  of  the  blessed  water  flowing 
from  the  rock  in  answer  to  the  stroke  from  the  Patri 
arch's  staff.  Mr.  Rhind  also  executed  one  of  the  mag 
nificent  bronze  doors  now  on  Trinity  Church. 

Visitors  to  New  York's  Central  Park  have  admired 
the  beautiful  carved  work  on  the  Terrace  and  Mall- 
work  that  is  now  beginning  to  lose  its  sharp  outline  un 
der  stress  of  the  weather  changes,  which  in  the  Northern 
States  are  so  destructive  of  outdoor  stonework.  A  great 
deal  of  this  carving  was  done  by  Robert  Thomson,  a 
sculptor  of  exquisite  taste,  who,  if  we  may  judge  by  his 
work  in  Central  Park,  was  as  conscientious  and  thorough 
in  his  attention  to  the  most  trifling  and  almost  hidden 
details  as  to  those  things  which  were  certain  to  arrest 
the  public  eye.  For  many  years  there  stood  in  the  same 
park  a  group  modeled  by  him  to  which  was  given  the 
name  of  "Auld  Lang  Syne."  It  represented  Tarn  o'  Shan- 
ter  and  Souter  Johnnie  enjoying  a  crack,  with  the  usual 
accompaniments.  To  a  Scotsman  the  group  was  more 
than  a  work  of  art;  it  was  a  glimpse  o'  hame.  Every 


188  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Scot  resident  in  New  York  knew  each  line  in  the  group, 
and  every  new  arrival  in  the  community  was  taken  to 
the  nook  where  it  stood,  or  was  sent  there  soon  after  his 
arrival.  After  several  years  of  exposure  the  freestone  in 
which  the  figures  were  carved  began  to  show  signs  of  dis 
integration,  and  to  save  the  work  it  was  removed  to  the 
building  at  the  Casino  where  the  Crawford  models  were 
on  view,  and  there  it  was  badly  damaged  in  the  fire 
which  laid  that  building  in  ruins.  It  is  still  stored  some 
where  in  the  Park,  but  too  much  worsted  in  its  encounter 
with  the  flames  to  be  attractive — even  to  Scotsmen,  it  is 
said.  After  a  residence  of  some  fifteen  years  in  this  coun 
try,  spent  mainly  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Balti 
more,  Mr.  Thomson  returned  to  Scotland,  and,  settling 
in  Edinburgh,  continued  his  work  as  a  sculptor.  He  ex 
ecuted,  among  other  things,  several  figures  for  the  niches 
in  the  Scott  Monument,  including  Jeannie  Deans  and 
the  Laird  of  Dumbiedykes.  He  died  in  that  city  early  in 
1895.  One  of  Thomson's  pupils,  Alexander  M.  Calder,  a 
native  of  Aberdeen,  has  long  held  a  noted  position 
among  Philadelphia  sculptors.  He  cut  or  designed  most 
of  the  carved  work  on  the  new  Public  Buildings,  and  that 
magnificent  pile  is  crowned  by  his  gigantic  figure  of 
William  Penn. 

George  E.  Ewing,  the  once  noted  Glasgow  sculptor, 
whose  figure  of  Burns  stands  in  that  city's  famous  plaza, 
George  Square,  closed  a  somewhat  varied  career  in  New 
York  in  1884.  He  had  done  much  good  work  in  Glas 
gow  and  the  West  of  Scotland,  and  many  Scots  in  Amer 
ica  were  surprised  when  he  forsook  his  native  land  and 
entered  upon  a  new  career  in  New  York.  Whatever  ex 
pectations  he  had  formed  of  America  were  doomed  to 
disappointment,  and  his  experience  was  a  succession  of 
failures.  The  fact  was,  he  was  too  old  on  reaching 
America  to  begin  life  anew,  and  his  artistic  methods  and 
ideals  were  too  firmly  cast  to  adapt  themselves  to  the 
taste  of  the  American  connoisseurs,  and  so  accomplish 
anything  like  satisfactory  financial  results.  He  executed 
some  very  pleasing  busts,  notably  one  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Taylor,  and  one  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Omiston,  both  good  ex- 


ARTISTS    AND    ARCHITECTS.  139 

amples  of  conscientious  modeling,  with,  in  the  bust  of  Dr. 
Ormiston,  a  dash  of  genius  which  marked  the  artist;  but 
these  things  brought  no  "  grist  to  the  mill."  After  two 
years'  struggling  in  New  York,  Ewing  went  to  Philadel 
phia,  but  there  his  success  was  no  greater,  and  his  life 
became  full  of  sadness.  When  Henry  Irving  first  visited 
Philadelphia  Ewing  called  on  him — they  were  acquaint 
ed  long  before.  Learning  of  his  plight,  the  great  actor 
at  once  gave  him  a  commission  to  execute  a  medallion 
portrait  of  himself  and  one  of  Miss  Terry.  To  get  the 
necessary  sittings  he  accompanied  the  actors  to  New 
York  and  lodged  at  the  Brevoort  House.  There,  one 
morning,  he  was  found  lying  dead  in  bed.  The  room  was 
partly  filled  with  gas  from  an  open  jet  in  the  chandelier, 
and  it  was  supposed  that  Mr.  Ewing  had  either  not  no 
ticed  the  escape  when  he  retired  to  bed,  or,  in  extinguish 
ing  the  light  had  involuntarily  reopened  the  jet.  The  re 
mains  were  interred  in  Greenwood  Cemetery,  Brooklyn. 
Mr.  Ewing  virtually  left  nothing  on  this  side  of  the  At 
lantic  by  which  his  ability  as  a  sculptor  can  publicly  be 
judged,  a  fact  which  is  to  be  regretted,  for  he  was  a  man 
of  brilliant  parts,  with  high  ideals  as  an  artist,  and  would 
have  at  least  amply  justified  his  Scottish  reputation  had  a 
fitting  opportunity  been  vouchsafed  to  him. 

In  the  Wellstood  family,  which  for  a  long  series  of 
years  had  at  least  two  representatives  in  the  foremost 
ranks  of  American  engravers,  we  find  several  men  of  un 
doubted  artistic  ability  who  devoted  their  whole  lives 
toward  improvement  of  that  branch  of  art.  The  family 
was  an  Edinburgh  one,  and  is  still  in  some  of  its  branches 
active  in  the  daily  doings  of  that  grand  old  city.  John 
Geikie  Wellstood  was  born  in  Auld  Reekie  in  1813,  and 
settled  in  New  York  in  1830.  After  being  in  business 
for  several  years,  his  firm  merged  in  the  American  Bank 
Note  Company,  and  he  remained  in  that  concern  until 
1871,  when  he  founded  the  Columbian  Bank  Note  Com 
pany  in  Washington,  of  which  he  became  President.  In 
connection  with  this  establishment  he  modeled  and  part 
ly  engraved  the  backs  of  all  the  United  States  Treasury 
notes.  When  all  work  of  this  class  was  undertaken  by 


190  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

a  Government  bureau  Mr.  Wellstood  returned  to  New 
York  and  became  again  connected  with  the  American 
Bank  Note  Company.  As  a  script  engraver  he  was  con 
sidered  superior  to  any  man  of  his  time. 

His  brother,  William,  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1819,  and 
who  was  for  a  long  term  of  years  engaged  in  business  in 
New  York,  devoted  himself  more  to  pictorial  work,  and 
his  portraits  of  Longfellow,  President  Grant,  and  Flor 
ence  Nightingale,  were  long  ranked  as  among  the  best 
examples  of  the  American  engraver's  art.  High  praise 
is  due  also  to  such  works  as  his  "  Mount  Washington," 
after  Gifford,  and  his  "  Coast  of  Mount  Desert,"  after 
William  Hart.  For  a  small  engraving,  an  engraving  in 
which  the  engraver  has  put  his  heart  as  much  as  painter 
ever  did  into  his  canvas,  we  know  of  nothing  finer  than 
the  portrait  of  Hew  Ainslie,  the  poet,  with  its  emblematic 
wreath,  which  William  Wellstood  engraved  after  a  de 
sign  by  his  brother  Stephen,  for  the  edition  of  Ainslie's 
poems  issued  in  1855.  James,  a  son  of  William  W^ell- 
stood,  who  was  born  in  New  York  City  in  1855  and  died 
in  1880,  was  an  engraver  of  much  promise,  as  is  amply 
evidenced  by  his  "  Safe  in  Port/'  after  the  painting  of 
that  name  by  William  Moran.  The  whole  family,  how 
ever,  have  been  in  one  way  or  another  distinguished 
"  above  the  lave,"  and  would  require  a  chapter  to  them 
selves,  instead  of  merely  the  passing  notice  it  is  within 
the  province  of  a  volume  like  this  to  give. 

A  noted  example  of  an  engraver  developing  into  a 
painter — and  a  painter  of  first  rank — is  furnished  by  the 
career  of  Walter  Shirlaw.  Born  in  Paisley — the  town 
of  poets — in  1838,  and  emigrating  to  the  United  States 
with  his  parents  two  years  later,  Mr.  Shirlaw's  entire  ed 
ucation,  artistic  and  otherwise,  has  been  gained  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  He  learned  the  trade  of  engraving — 
his  specialty  being  work  on  bank  notes — but  even  when 
a  child  had  inclinations  for  the  higher  branch  of  art.  and 
the  first  picture  he  exhibited,  at  the  National  Academy 
in  1861,  won  such  favorable  comment  that  he  decided 
to  leave  engraving  alone  for  the  future.  After  studying  in 
Munich  for  a  year  or  two,  he  returned  to  America,  and 


ARTISTS     AND     ARCHITECTS.  191 

his  career  since  then  as  a  landscape  artist  has  been  one 
of  continued  and  increasing"  success.  Among  his  most 
noted  works  have  been  "  Jealousy,"  now  owned  by  the 
National  Academy  of  Design;  "  Good  Morning,"  "  Sheep 
Shearing-  in  the  Bavarian  Highlands,"  "  Gossip,"  and 
"  Indian  Girl."  Mr.  Shirlaw  became  an  Academician  in 
1888,  and  was  one  of  the  founders  and  the  first  Presi 
dent  of  the  Society  of  American  Artists. 

We  would  like  to  devote  considerable  space  to  the 
hundreds  of  Scotch  architects  who  have  been  at  work 
in  this  country  since  it  began  to  cultivate  the  arts,  but 
the  subject  is  too  great  to  be  even  more  than  barely 
hinted  at  at  the  tail  end  of  a  chapter,  and  that  is  all  that 
our  scheme  will  permit.  So  we  must  content  ourselves 
with  a  couple  of  examples. 

In  an  issue  of  the  New  York  "  Scottish-American  "  for 
1888  is  the  following  notice  regarding  an  early  archi 
tect  whose  name  is  by  no  means  yet  forgotten  in  New 
York: 

"  The  alterations  now  in  progress  at  Castle  Garden  re 
veal  much  of  the  old  work  of  Alexander  McComb,  the 
old  New  York  architect,  who  was  the  most  prominent 
member  of  his  profession  in  this  country  in  the  middle  of 
last  century.  He  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  but  of  what 
county  is  not  known,  although  it  is  generally  believed  to 
have  been  Ayrshire.  When  the  old  City  Hall,  in  Wall 
Street,  was  remodeled  and  practically  rebuilt,  Mr.  Mc 
Comb  was  the  architect,  and  a  very  stately  building  it 
was.  McComb  amassed  considerable  wealth,  bought  a 
large  tract  of  land  in  the  Adirondacks,  and  finally  settled 
there,  leaving  his  business  to  his  son,  John.  His  name 
is  still  recalled  by  McComb's  Dam  Bridge,  in  the  upper 
part  of  the  city. 

"  John  McComb  was  born  in  this  city  in  1763,  and  was 
as  successful  as  his  father.  He  erected  a  fine  house  for 
himself  in  Bowling  Green,  which  was  long  known  as  the 
McComb  Mansion,  and  all  the  principal  buildings  put 
up  in  New  York  between  1795  and  1830  were  designed 
by  him.  His  greatest  work,  so  far  as  we  know,  is  the 
present  City  Hall,  the  cornerstone  of  which  was  laid  in 


192  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

1803,  when  Edward  Livingston,  the  descendant  of  an 
old  and  aristocratic  Scotch  family,  was  Mayor.  Another 
memorial  of  McComb's  skill  is  old  St.  John's  Church,  on 
Varick  Street,  which  in  its  day  was  thought  to  be  a  more 
perfect  and  comfortable  church  than  old  St.  Paul's,  at  the 
corner  of  Vesey  Street  and  Broadway.  McComb  also 
designed  several  improvements  at  Castle  Clinton,  (now 
Castle  Garden,)  some  of  which  after  being  concealed  by 
wooden  erections  for  many  years  are  again  being  ex 
posed  to  view.  He  lived  to  a  good  old  age,  dying  in  this 
city  in  1853,  and  left  a  name  that  will  ever  rank  promi 
nent  among  New  York  architects." 

A  more  modern  example  may  be  selected  in  the  career 
of  John  McArthur,  who  was  born  in  Bladenock,  Wigton- 
shire,  in  1823.  In  1848  he  did  his  first  public  work  in 
this  country,  when  he  designed  the  House  of  Refuge  in 
Philadelphia.  Since  then  he  has  designed  scores  of  pub 
lic  buildings,  such  as  the  Naval  Hospitals  at  Philadel 
phia,  Annapolis,  Md.,  and  Mare  Island,  Cal.;  Public 
Ledger  Building,  Philadelphia;  Lafayette  College,  Eas- 
ton,  Penn.,  and  for  his  crowning  work,  the  new  Public 
Buildings  of  Philadelphia.  In  1874  Mr.  McArthur  de 
clined  the  offer  of  the  office  of  Supervising  Architect  of 
the  Treasury. 

It  would  hardly  do  to  pass  away  from  the  architects 
without  some  mention  of  the  men  who  interpret  their 
ideas — the  mechanics.  In  stonework,  Scotch  masons 
long  held  the  lead  in  this  country;  wherever  a  stone 
building  was  being  erected,  Scotsmen  in  greater  or  lesser 
numbers  were  certain  to  be  found.  Every  building  of 
any  size  in  the  country,  it  may  be  safe  to  say,  owes  some 
thing  to  Scotch  ingenuity.  The  Capitol  at  Albany,  the 
State  House  at  Boston,  the  TomDs  at  New  York,  the 
Metropolitan  Museum,  the  City  Hall  at  Chicago,  and 
hundreds  of  other  edifices  famous  over  the  country  were 
reared  amid  the  sound  of  the  Doric.  To  take  one  notable 
instance,  the  Smithsonian  Institution  at  Washington  was 
built  by  Gilbert  Cameron,  a  native  of  Greenock,  who  for 
several  years  was  the  most  noted  contractor  in  the  Cap 
ital  City.  When  the  civil  war  broke  out  Cameron,  then 


ARTISTS     AND     ARCHITECTS. 


193 


an  old  man,  found  himsen  in  possession  01  a  competency, 
and,  despising-  all  schemes  for  amassing-  greater  wealth, 
he  returned  to  his  native  country  and  spent  his  time  in 
a  house  he  called  "  Washington  Cottage,"  at  Greenock, 
until  his  death,  in  1866. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS. 

IT  would  be  singular  if  a  country  whose  genius  gave  to 
the  world  the  art  of  logarithms,  the  steam  engine,  the 
knowledge  of  chloroform,  illuminating  gas,  and  a  host 
of  other  universally  renowned  inventions,  discoveries, 
and  appliances  would  not  be  represented  in  scientific  pur 
suits  and  the  higher  mechanical  sciences  in  America.  We 
specify  higher  mechanical  because  what  might  be  termed 
actual  mechanical  work  can  have  no  share  in  our  in 
quiries.  Scotch  mechanics  are  found  all  over  the  coun 
try,  and  are  generally  >held  in  the  highest  regard  for 
their  thorough  mastery  over  their  work,  their  intelligent 
manipulation  of  details,  their  readiness  to  grasp  new 
ideas,  even  when  they  do  not  evolve  them,  and  their 
conscientious  devotion  to  whatever  matter  may  be  in 
hand.  There  is  not  a  railway  machine  shop  in  America, 
or  iron  shipbuilding  establishment,  where  Scotch  me 
chanics  may  not  be  found.  The  .same,  in  fact,  might  be 
said  of  every  extensive  mechanical  establishment  on  the 
continent.  Into  the  story  of  this  great  army  of  toilers, 
hard  at  work,  every  day  doing  something  that  is  to  aid 
in  the  further  development  of  the  country's  resources  or 
comforts,  we  cannot  enter.  We  must  perforce  confine 
ourselves  to  the  higher  departments  of  science — to  ex 
amples  selected  from  among  what  may  be  called  pro 
fessional  workers. 

Without  at  all  attempting  to  take  away  from  any  one 
the  credit  of  being  the  first  to  make  the  science  of  teleg 
raphy  a  success,  we  must  claim  that  the  first  publicly  to 
express  the  idea  that  electricity  could  be  so  utilized  was 
a  Scotsman  who  ended  his  days  in  Virginia.  This  was 
194 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  195 

Charles  Morrison,  a  native  of  Greenock.  Very  little  is 
known  about  his  life  history  beyond  the  fact  that  he  was 
a  surgeon  by  profession,  a  man  of  extreme  modesty,  and 
that,  unable  to  make  a  living  in  Scotland,  he  crossed 
over  to  Virginia  and  died  there.  Many  efforts  have  been 
made  in  America  and  Scotland  to  discover  some  addi 
tional  information  about  his  life  and  death,  but  without 
avail.  His  claim  to  have  demonstrated  that  electricity 
could  be  utilized  for  conveying  intelligence  is  based  upon 
a  letter  which  he  sent  from  Renfrew  to  the  Scots  Maga 
zine,  and  which  appeared  in  that  once  famous  periodical 

in    1753- 

The  essential  portion  of  the  letter  is  as  follows: 
"  It  is  well  known  to  all  who  are  conversant  with  elec 
trical  experiments  that  the  electric  power  may  be  propa 
gated  along  a  small  wire,  from  one  place  to  another, 
without  being  sensibly  abated  by  the  length  of  its  prog 
ress.  Let,  then,  a  set  of  wires,  equal  in  number  to  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet,  be  extended  horizontally  between 
two  given  places  parallel  to  one  another,  and  each  of 
them  about  an  inch  distant  from  that  next  to  it.  At 
every  twenty  yards'  end  let  them  be  fixed  in  glass,  or 
jeweler's  cement,  to  some  firm  body,  both  to  prevent 
them  from  touching  the  earth  or  any  other  non-electric, 
and  from  breaking  by  their  own  gravity.  Let  the  elec 
tric  gun  barrel  be  placed  at  right  angles  with  the  extrem 
ities  of  the  wires,  and  about  an  inch  below  them.  Also 
let  the  wires  be  fixed  on  a  solid  piece  of  glass,  at  six 
inches  from  the  end,  and  let  that  part  of  them  which 
reaches  from  the  glass  to  the  machine  have  sufficient 
spring  and  stiffness  to  recover  its  situation  after  having 
been  brought  in  contact  with  the  barrel.  Close  by  the 
supporting  glass  let  a  ball  be  suspended  from  every  wire; 
and  about  a  sixth  or  an  eighth  of  an  inch  below  the  balls 
place  the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  marked  on  bits  of  paper 
or  any  other  substance  that  may  be  light  enough  to  rise 
to  the  electrified  ball,  and  at  the  same  time  let  it  be  so 
contrived  that  each  of  them  may  reassume  its  proper 
place  when  dropped. 

"  All  things  constructed  as  above,  and  the  minute  pre- 


196  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

viously  fixed,  I  begin  the  conversation  with  my  distant 
friend  in  this  manner.  Having  set  the  electrical  machine 
a-going  as  in  ordinary  experiments,  suppose  I  am  to 
pronounce  the  word  Sir;  with  a  piece  of  glass  or  any 
other  electric  per  sc,  I  strike  the  wire  S,  so  as  to  bring  it 
in  contact  with  the  barrel,  then  i,  then  r,  all  in  the  same 
way;  and  my  correspondent,  almost  in  the  same  instant, 
observes  these  several  characters  rise  in  order  to  the 
electrified  balls  at  his  end  of  the  wires." 

Any  one  can  see  that  there  is  a  big  difference  between 
the  electric  telegraph  of  to-day  and  that  outlined  in  this 
letter,  but  the  essential  principle  is  the  same,  and  surely 
this  unfortunate  Scot  should  receive  credit  for  thus  pro 
mulgating  an  idea  which  others  took  up  and  perfected 
until  it  has  become  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  modern 
world. 

So,  too,  with  the  question  of  steam  navigation.  Years 
before  Taylor  or  Miller  on  Dalswinton,  or  Bell  on  the 
Clyde,  or  Fulton  on  the  Hudson,  demonstrated  its  feasi 
bility  it  was  fully  shown  on  the  Potomac  in  the  presence 
of  George  Washington  by  James  Rumsey,  who  was  born 
in  Virginia  of  Scotch  parents  in  1754.  His  first  really 
public  experiment  was  made  in  1786,  and  two  years  later 
he  exhibited  another  model.  One  writer,  Mr.  James 
Weir,  Jr.,  says:  "  He  had  all  the  native  shrewdness  and 
astuteness  generally  ascribed  to  the  Scotchman.  He 
was  a  man  of  fine  presence,  tall  and  powerfully  built. 
While,  strictly  speaking,  not  an  educated  man,  he  was 
an  omnivorous  reader  and  well  versed  in  matters  per 
taining  to  his  profession — civil  engineering.  He  was  a 
good  talker,  but  a  better  listener,  and  his  neighbors  re 
garded  him  with  respect,  and  looked  upon  him  as  a  man 
of  undoubted  genius. 

"  Testimony  adduced  before  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  in  1839  shows  that  Rumsey  had  conceived  the  idea 
of  steam  navigation  as  early  as  August,  1783.  Laboring 
under  very  adverse  circumstances,  he  succeeded  in  the 
Autumn  of  1784  in  making  a  test  of  some  of  the  princi 
ples  of  his  engine  and  propelling  apparatus.  In  January, 
1785,  Rumsey  obtained  a  patent  from  the  General  As- 


V 

SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  197 

senibly  of  Maryland  for  navigating  the  waters  of  that 
State.  During  the  whole  of  that  year  he  was  busy  in 
the  construction  of  a  steamboat,  and  in  1786  he  success 
fully  navigated  this  boat  on  the  Potomac  at  Shepherds- 
town  in  the  presence  of  hundreds  of  spectators." 

We  have  quoted  American  testimony  in  connection 
with  this  case,  as  Scotsmen  have  often  been  accused  oi 
national  prejudice  in  connection  with  the  subject  of  early 
steam  navigation. 

The  first  Scotch  scientist  of  any  consequence,  so  far  as 
we  have  been  able  to  trace,  to  settle  in  America  was  . 
William  Douglas,  a  native  of  Linlithgowshire.  He  was 
"T5bfn  in  1691,  and  left  Scotland  for  the  American  Colo 
nies  in  1716,  settling  in  Boston  two  years  later  as  a  phy 
sician,  a  profession  he  had  studied  at  Glasgow.  He 
quickly  established  a  large  and  profitable  practice,  but 
he  had  the  knack  of  making  enemies,  and  soon  could 
number  them  by  the  score.  He  appears  to  have  been  a 
man  of  strong  prejudices,  quick  in  temper,  and  pos 
sessed  of  a  degree  of  blunt  outspokenness  which  often 
led  him  into  awkward  positions.  He  was  considerable 
of  a  busybody,  too,  and  had  opinions  on  almost  any  sub 
ject,  and  these  opinions  he  never  concealed,  even  when 
personal  policy  would  have  inculcated  silence  as  his  best 
and  most  profitable  course.  He  was  a  bitter  opponent 
of  the  idea  of  vaccination  as  a  preventive  of  smallpox, 
and  he  advocated  additional  stamp  duties  at  a  time  when 
the  trend  of  public  sentiment  in  the  Colonies  was  in  fa 
vor  of  their  abolition.  But  in  spite  of  his  marked  pecul 
iarities  he  was  a  man  of  the  warmest  heart,  and  had, 
after  all,  more  friends  than  enemies.  He  was  scrupu 
lously  honest  in  everything  he  did,  and  as  a  medical  prac 
titioner  his  reputation  was  second  to  none  in  New  Eng 
land.  He  published  an  "  almanack  "  in  1744  which  is 
yet  highly  valued  by  the  curious,  and  his  many  medical 
publications  show  him  to  have  been  a  fearless  thinker 
and  a  diligent  student.  He  died  at  Boston  in  1750. 

A  year  later  than  Dr.  Douglas  there  came  to  America 
a  much  more  lovable  personage,  who  was  destined  to 
leave  a  deeper  mark  in  the  country's  annals.  This  was 


198  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Dr.  Thomas  Graeme,  who,  as  one  of  the  founders,  in 
1749,  and  the  first  President  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society 
of  Philadelphia,  raised  a  better  and  more  enduring  mon 
ument  to  his  own  worth  and  patriotism  than  could  have 
been  constructed  in  marble  or  granite.  Indeed,  he  seems 
to  have  been  very  popular  among  his  countrymen  in  the 
Quaker  City,  for,  after  leaving  the  chair  of  the  society 
which  he  had  helped  to  found  he  was  recalled  to  that 
honorable  office,  and  served  from  1764  until  his  death  in 
1771.  Dr.  Graeme  was  born  at  Balgowan  in  1688  and 
settled  in  Philadelphia  in  1717,  at  the  instance  of  Sir 
William  Keith,  Lieutenant  Governor,  whom  he  accom 
panied  across  the  ocean,  and  remained  there  until  the 
end  of  his  career.  During  most  of  his  life  he  practiced 
his  profession  as  a  physician,  and  as  such  he  attained 
considerable  eminence,  but  his  practice  was  more  or  less 
interrupted  by  several  appointments  which  he  held.  In 
1726  Dr.  Graeme  became  a  member  of  the  Provincial 
Council,  in  1727  he  was  appointed  Naval  Officer  at 
Philadelphia,  in  1731  he  was  chosen  a  Justice  of  the  Su 
preme  Court,  and  in  1741  became  again  Naval  Officer, 
and  continued  in  that  position  for  twenty  years.  He  had 
a  marked  influence  on  Philadelphia  during  his  career, 
and  his  charitable  disposition  was  shown  in  many  ways. 
Besides  helping,  at  least,  to  organize  the  St.  Andrew's 
Society,  which  from  its  beginning  has  been  an  exponent 
of  practical,  sensible,  and  timely  charity,  Dr.  Graeme 
took  an  active  part  in  founding  the  Pennsylvania  Hos 
pital,  of  which  institution  he  acted  (from  1751)  during 
several  years  as  physician.  Scotsmen  of  this  stamp,  and 
there  were  and- are  an  army  of  them,  exert  a  wonderful 
amount  of  good  in  the  world,  and,  indeed,  it  may  be 
said  that  the  influences  of  their  lives  are  not  lost  even  in 
the  mass  of  good  influences  which  preserve  the  moral 
vitality  of  the  world,  but  stand  out  in  bold  relief  as  in 
stances  of  what  may  be  accomplished  by  well  thought 
out  and  kindly  efforts  even  when  not  backed  up  by  vast 
individual  wealth. 

Dr.  John  Linning,  who,  according  to  the  records  of 
the  St  Andrew's  Society  of  Charleston,  became  a  mem- 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  199 

bcr  of  that  organization  in  1731,  arrived  in  America  a 
year  before,  and  soon  built  up  a  prosperous  practice  in 
South  Carolina's  historical  city.  He  was  born  in  Dun 
dee,  in  1708  and  studied  medicine  at  Edinburgh.  Early 
in  his  professional  career  he  took  a  special  interest  in 
natural  science,  was  fond  of  experimenting  in  physics— 
or  natural  philosophy — and  when  the  subject  of  electric 
ity  first  began  to  be  broached  he  carried  on  an  extensive 
and  learned  correspondence  with  Benjamin  Franklin 
concerning  it.  Dr.  Linning  was  the  first  to  introduce  an 
electrical  apparatus  in  Charleston.  His  interest  in  his 
profession,  however,  was  not  lessened  by  such  experi 
ments  or  studies,  and  he  was  ever  striving  to  keep  fully 
abreast  with  the  medical  progress  of  his  time,  either  by 
observation  in  his  own  practice  or  by  reading.  One  evi 
dence  of  this  still  remains,  although  the  work  is  now  ob 
solete,  in  his  "  History  of  Yellow  Fever,"  the  first  Amer 
ican  book  on  the  subject.  Dr.  Linning  died  at  Charles 
ton  in  1760. 

The  family  physician  of  George  Washington  and  his 
firm  and  attached  friend  from  the  day  they  first  met,  at 
Fort  Necessity,  in  1754,  until  the  nation's  hero  passed 
away  at  Mount  Vernon,  in  1799,  was  Dr.  Japies.£>gikJ  a.  , 
native  of  Scotland,  who  had  settled  in  early  life  in  Vir 
ginia.  He  was  born  in  1731.  In  1754,  when  he  met 
Washington  at  Fort  Necessity,  he  was  Surgeon  in  a  pro 
vincial  corps,  and  stood  by  that  officer's  side  when  tiie 
body  of  the  commander  of  the  provincial  forces,  Gen. 
Braddock,  was  being  committed  to  the  grave.  When 
the  Revolutionary  War  broke  out,  Craik  adopted  the 
cause  of  the  Colonies  and  saw  a  good  deal  of  active  serv 
ice.  At  the  siege  of  Yorktown  he  was  director  general 
of  the  hospital,  and  the  skill  and  the  devotion  he  showed 
won  the  admiration  of  all  who  were  brought  into  con 
tact  with  him.  After  the  struggle  was  over,  Dr.  Craik 
settled  near  the  home  of  Gen.  Washington,  and  the  two 
men  enjoyed  the  pleasantest  intimacy.  When  Washing 
ton  was  seized  with  his  last  illness,  the  old  family  physi 
cian  was  summoned,  and  held  the  hand  of  the  warrior- 
statesman  as  he  passed  out  through  the  veil.  Dr.  Craik 


200  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

spent  his  closing  years  quietly  in  his  Virginia  home,  and 
he  died  there  in  1814,  when  the  country  was  in  the  midst 
of  its  second,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  its  last,  armed  con 
test  with  Britain. 

Dr.  Craik  was  one  of  those  quiet,  useful  men  who  do 
much  good  on  their  journey  through  the  world,  but  who, 
it  must  be  confessed,  acquire  eminence  not  so  much  by 
their  own  talents  as  by  those  of  their  friends.  He  was  rec 
ognized  as  a  skillful,  conservative  physician,  but  without 
any  of  those,  brilliant  qualities  which  would  have  of 
themselves  given  him  prominence  in  his  profession  or 
would  have  preserved  his  name  and  memory  till  the 
present  day.  His  fame  was  not  to  be  compared  to  that 
of  his  contemporary,  Dr.  Peter  Middleton,  one  of  the 
original  members  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society  of  New 
York  and  its  President  for  three  terms,  1767-8-9.  He 
was  a  native  of  Edinburgh,  and  graduated  in  medicine  in 
that  city.  He  settled  in  New  York  about  1730,  and  soon 
was  regarded  as  the  most  eminent  physician  and  surgeon 
in  the  Colony.  In  1750,  in  company  with  another  med 
ical  man,  he  made  the  first  dissection  in  America  of  a 
body  before  a  number  of  students,  and  in  the  matter  of 
the  education  for  his  own  profession  Dr.  Middleton 
seemed  to  have  always  taken  a  deep  interest.  In  1767  he 
established  a  medical  school  in  New  York,  a  school 
which  was  subsequently  merged  into  King's  [ Columbia J 
College,  of  which  institution  he  was  one  of  the  Gov 
ernors  from  1770  till  his  death,  in  1781. 

Equally  prominent  as  a  physician,  and  entitled  to  spe 
cial  remembrance  as  the  first  of  the  great  scientific 
American  weather  prophets  who  have  made  the  name  of 
"  American  weather  "  so  famous  or  notorious  over  the 
world,  was  Dr.  Lionel  Chalmers.  He  crossed  the  At 
lantic  in  1736,  settled  soon  afterward  in  Charleston,  S. 
C.,  and  practiced  his  profession  there  for  some  forty 
years,  or  until  his  death,  in  1777.  Dr.  Chalmers  was 
born  at  Campbellton,  Argyllshire,  in  1715,  and  left  Scot 
land  for  America  immediately  upon  graduating1  from 
Edinburgh  University.  He  published  several  medical 
books  and  essays,  but  his  weather  researches,  notably  as 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  9(31 

expressed  in  his  now  scarce  "  Treatise  on  Weather  and 
Diseases  of  South  Carolina,"  are  his  best  claims  to  dis 
tinction.  He  made  careful  observations,  ventured  even 
on  prophesying,  and  saw  that  study  on  scientific  lines 
was  only  needed  to  reduce  the  weather  problem  to  an 
exact  science. 

An  amiable  man,  of  high  scientific  attainments,  and 
whose  life  was  one  of  usefulness,  was  Dr.  William  Wil 
son,  who  was  contented  to  practice  his  profession  as  a 
physician  in  a  very  limited  circle — that  of  the  family  and 
friends  of  Chancellor  Livingston — but  who  filled  several 
offices  with  marked  ability  and  was  one  of  the  early  pro 
moters  of  scientific  agriculture  in  America.  He  arrived 
in  New  York  in  1784,  bringing  with  him  from  Scotland 
his  newly  received  medical  graduation  papers,  from  Glas 
gow  University,  and  letters  of  introduction  to  Chan 
cellor  Livingston.  That  great  and  good  man  was  de 
lighted  with  the  new-comer,  and  invited  him  to  take  up 
his  quarters  at  the  family  mansion  of  Clennont,  which 
remained  his  home  until  his  death,  in  1828,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-three  years,  long  after  his  patron  and  friend  had 
passed  away.  In  1804  Dr.  Wilson  was  appointed  Judge 
of  Columbia  County,  and  held  that  office  for  several 
years.  His  interest  in  agricultural  matters  was  increased 
and  developed  by  his  residence  in  that  section  of  the 
State,  and  produced  many  useful  results.  One  of  these 
was  the  organization,  by  his  efforts,  of  the  Farmers'  Club 
of  Dutchess  and  Columbia  Counties — the  pioneer  of  the 
purely  agricultural  societies  in  New  York. 

Another  scientific  physician  was  Dr.  John  Spence  of 
Philadelphia,  who  was  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1766  and 
educated  at  the  university  in  that  city.  His  first  purpose 
when  entering  the  classes  at  Edinburgh  was  to  get  en 
rolled  in  the  ranks  of  the  ministry,  but  his  views  in  that 
respect  were  not  realized,  and  he  turned  his  attention  to 
the  study  of  medicine.  When  he  took  up  his  residence 
in  America  his  first  employment  was  as  a  family  tutor  at 
Dumfries,  Va.  He  was  one  of  the  stanchest  advocates 
in  America  of  vaccination,  and  was  active  in  spreading 
abroad  a  knowledge  of  its  practice  and  its  beneficent  in- 


202  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

fluence.  He  contributed  largely  to  the  medical  and 
scientific  journals  of  his  time,  and  a  spirited  controversy 
which  he  had  with  the  famous  Benjamin  Rush,  and 
which  was  published  in  1806  in  the  "  Medical  Museum  " 
of  Philadelphia,  gave  him  a  considerable  degree  of  prom 
inence.  Dr.  Spence  died  at  Dumfries,  Ya.,  in  1829. 

Few  physicians  in  New  York  State  were  more  hon 
ored  during  life  than  was  Dr.  Jarnes  McNaughton,  who 
was  born  at  Kenmore,  Perthshire,  in  1809,  and  died  in 
Paris,  France,  while  on  a  visit,  in  1874.  His  life  from 
1817  until  a  few  months  before  his  death  \vas  spent  in 
Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  from  1840  on  he  honored  the  office 
of  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine  in 
Albany  Medical  College,  while  for  many  years  he  was 
regularly  elected  President  of  the  Albany  County  Med 
ical  College.  His  birthplace  is  remembered  in  Albany 
by  the  Kenmore  Hotel,  named  in  its  honor  by  a  com 
pany  in  which  his  sons  were  prominent.  Dr.  Lawrence 
Turnbull  (a  native  of  Shotts)  and  his  son,  Dr.  Charles 
Smith  Turnbull,  fill  a  large  and  prominent  place  in  the 
medical  annals  of  Philadelphia,  while  around  New  York 
such  men  as  Prof.  A.  J.  C.  Skene,  and  in  Boston  practi 
tioners  like  Dr.  A.  D.  Sinclair  are  worthily  upholding 
the  fame  of  the  motherland  in  the  art  of  healing. 

But  we  have  dwelt  long  enough  among  medical  men, 
and  must  now  cull  some  examples  in  other  walks  of 
science. 

One  of  the  most  noted  of  the  scientific  soldiers  of  the 
Revolutionary  War  was  Robert  Erskine,  son  of  the  Rev. 
Ralph  Erskine,  author  of  "  Gospel  Sonnets  "  and  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  Secession  Church  in  Scotland.  Er 
skine  was  born  at  Dunfermline  in  1735.  His  first  employ 
ment  was  at  Falkirk,  and  there  and  in  England  he  seems 
to  have  become  thoroughly  posted  in  the  making  of  can 
non  and  cannon  balls.  After  settling  in  America  in  1771 
to  become  the  manager  of  an  iron  works  in  New  Jersey, 
he  threw  off,  when  opportunity  offered,  his  allegiance  to 
the  British  Crown  and  became  Chief  of  Engineers  on  the 
staff  of  Gen.  Washington.  He  died  in  1780,  when  the 
conflict  was  at  its  height,  and  his  leader  honored  his 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  203 

memory  by  ordering  a  stone  placed  over  his  grave  at' 
Ringwood,  N.  J. — a  memorial  that  can  yet  be  seen  by 
visitors  to  that  region. 

Among  the  many  scientific  institutions  of  which  Phila 
delphia  is  so  justly  proud  a  prominent  place  is  held  by 
the  Academy  of  National  Science,  which  is  now  housed 
in  a  massive  Gothic  building  on  Logan  Square.  It  was 
established  in  1812  by  a  few  enthusiasts  in  scientific  mat 
ters,  one  of  the  foremost  being  William  Maclure,  a  na 
tive  of  Ayr.  He  was  born  in  "  the  auld  toon  "  in  1763. 
He  first  visited  America  in  1780,  but  his  stay  was  short, 
and  he  returned  to  Britain  and  engaged  in  business  in 
London.  In  1796,  having  meantime  acquired  a  compe 
tence,  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  again,  acquired  citizenship 
in  the  young  republic,  and  once  more  engaged  in  busi 
ness,  increasing  his  fortune.  In  1803  he  went  to  France 
as  a  Commissioner  from  the  United  States  to  settle  the 
French  spoliation  claims,  and  it  was  while  thus  engaged 
that  he  became  deeply  interested  in  the  then  new  subject 
of  geology.  He  made  a  comprehensive  study  of  the 
science,  collected  a  large  number  of  specimens,  and  de 
termined  on  his  return  to  America  to  devote  himself 
solely  to  the  study  of  its  geology.  This  he  did  so  effect 
ively  and  thoroughly  and  with  such  important  results 
that  the  title  of  "  Father  of  American  Geology  "  has  been 
bestowed  upon  him.  The  first  fruits  of  his  researches 
were  contained  in  an  exhaustive  paper  which  he  read  be 
fore  the  American  Philosophical  Society  in  1809,  and  in 
1817  he  published  the  first  geological  map  of  the  United 
States. 

In  his  latter  years  Maclure  was  elected  President  of 
the  Academy  of  Natural  Science,  and  retained  that  honor 
until  his  death,  although  his  frequent  absences  from 
Philadelphia,  and  even  from  the  country,  might  have 
warranted  his  replacement  by  some  other  scientist.  His 
social  ideas  wrere  in  many  respects  peculiar,  and  he  tried 
in  various  ways  to  put  them  into  practice.  Thus,  in  1819, 
he  went  to  Spain,  bought  a  tract  of  land  from  the  revo 
lutionary  Government  then  in  power,  and  endeavored  to 
found  an  agricultural  colony  and  school — mainly  with 


204  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

the  view  of  advancing  the  interests  and  increasing-  the 
comforts  of  the  poorer  farmers  and  other  tillers  of  the 
soil,  but  the  deposition  of  the  Government  vitiated  the 
title  to  the  lands  he  had  secured,  and  he  was  compelled 
to  abandon  the  work.  Then  he  essayed  a  similar  scheme 
at  New  Harmony,  Ind.,  and  it  also  turned  out  a  failure, 
although  for  very  different  reasons. 

Mr.  Maclure  all  this  time  steadily  prosecuted  his  geo 
logical  studies,  visiting  nearly  every  section  of  the  coun 
try  in  pursuit  of  data  and  specimens,  and  these  he  gen 
erously  distributed  among  various  societies,  but  his  own 
collections,  stored  in  Philadelphia,  became  wonderfully 
varied,  and,  for  the  time,  complete.  In  1827  he  first  vis 
ited  Mexico,  and  was  so  attracted  by  its  opportunities 
for  study  that  he  returned  there  the  following  year  and 
continued  traveling  in  its  territory  till  his  death,' in  1840. 
By  his  will  he  bequeathed  his  library  and  the  bulk  of  his 
collections  to  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  together 
with  $25,000,  which  enabled  that  society  to  erect  the 
building  it  so  long  occupied  at  the  corner  of  Broad  and 
Sansom  Streets,  Philadelphia.  Many  of  his  geological 
specimens  were  given  also  to  the  American  Geological 
Society,  at  New  Haven,  Conn. 

An  equally  interesting  and  useful  career  was  that  of 
David  Douglas,  botanist,  who  was  born  at  Scone,  Perth 
shire,  in  1798,  and  was  murdered  in  the  Hawaiian  Isl 
ands  in  1834.  His  first  employment  as  a  botanist  was  in 
the  service  of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  and  afterward, 
as  a  botanical  collector  for  the  Horticultural  Society  of 
London,  he  traveled  over  a  large  part  of  the  world.  He 
journeyed  in  the  northern  and  western  regions  of  Can 
ada  with  Sir  John  Franklin,  and  was  one  of  the  early  ex 
plorers  of  the  Columbia  River.  In  California  he  col 
lected  no  fewer  than  8,000  specimens  of  its  flora,  and 
wherever  he  went  his  industry  and  knowledge  were 
fruitful  of  results.  In  botanical  circles  he  is  still  remem 
bered  by  his  name  being  given  to  a  species  of  pine — 
Pinus  Douglassi — which  he  discovered,  and  many  of  the 
imported  favorites  which  are  now  to  be  seen  in  English 
gardens  were  first  carried  to  that  country  by  him  after 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  205 

some  of  his  wandering's.  Another  Scot  who  is  remem 
bered  botanically  by  having  plants  named  after  him  was 
George  Ure  Skinner,  who  died  at  Aspinwall  in  1867. 
While  actively  engaged  as  a  member  of  the  mercantile 
firm  of  Klee,  Skinner  &  Co.,  Guatemala,  he  zealously 
pursued  botanical  researches  in  Western  Mexico,  Gua 
temala,  and  in  the  Southern  United  States. 

In  this  connection  we  are  reminded  how  numerous 
and  important  have  been  the  Scotch  florists  who  have 
settled  in  America.  From  the  days  of  Grant  Thorburn 
until  the  present  time  Scotch  practical  gardeners — men 
trained  in  Scotland — have  always  been  in  demand  in 
America,  and  as  seedsmen,  florists,  or  overseers,  working 
gardeners  have  had  more  to  do  with  inspiring  the  Amer 
ican  people  with  the  love  of  flowers  now  so  character 
istic  of  the  nation,  than  any  other  race.  The  late  Peter 
Henderson,  for  instance,  as  a  practical  gardener,  a 
vendor  of  seeds  and  plants,  and  as  an  author  was  better 
known  in  American  country  homes  than  any  man  in  his 
business,  and  he  did  more  to  make  gardening  of  all 
sorts — practical  and  ornamental — really  popular  than  any 
other  gardener  of  his  day  and  generation.  The  late 
Isaac  Buchanan,  who  died  in  1893  at  a  patriarchal  age, 
long  stood  at  the  head  of  New  York's  florists.  The  pub 
lic  park  system  of  Buffalo  owes  much — if  not  all — of  its 
comprehensiveness  and  beauty  to  the  labors  and  ability 
of  Mr.  William  Macmillan,,  a  native  of  Nairnshire, 
and  his  assistant,  Mr.  James  Braik;  and  the  Botanical 
Gardens  of  Washington  owe  their  perfection  in  great 
measure  to  the  loving  care  of  Mr.  W.  R.  Smith,  (a  native 
of  Athelstane,  Haddingtonshire,)  who  has  been  their 
Superintendent  for  many  years.  Mention  of  Mr.  Smith 
reminds  us  that  gardeners — mostly,  as  might  be  expect 
ed,  men  of  refined  taste — find  time  to  cultivate  other 
things  than  flowers.  Mr.  Smith,  for  instance,  proud  as  he 
is  of  his  plants  and  shrubs,  is  also  proud  of  his  library 
of  editions  of  Burns  and  Burnsiana,  said  to  be  the  most 
extensive  and  complete  in  America. 

The  story  of  a  life  which  might  have  grasped  the  high 
est  earthly  honors,  which  at  times  almost  did  grasp  them, 


206  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

but  failed,  from  some  inscrutable  reason,  is  always  a 
sad  one  to  read,  and  as  we  reflect  on  the  career  of  David 
Eoswell  Reid  it  seems  as  if  there  lay  in  him  the  ability 
to  have  won  for  himself  a  famous  name,  but  every  line 
along  which  it  ran  seemed  doomed  to  end  in  disappoint 
ment,  and  the  whole  story  is  a  painful  one.  He  was 
born  in  Edinburgh  in  1805  and  educated  in  the  university 
there.  His  student  career  was  a  brilliant  one,  and  four 
years  after  graduating-  he  taught  chemistry  in  the  uni 
versity  laboratory.  In  1833  he  became  one  of  those 
"  Extra-Mural  "  lecturers  whose  ability  and  popularity 
did  so  much  to  preserve  the  fame  of  Edinburgh  scien 
tific  education  at  a  time  when  the  university  itself  was 
by  no  means  in  a  progressive  condition.  Reid  built  a 
classroom  and  laboratory,  and  for  several  years  he  had 
over  300  pupils  at  each  of  his  sessions,  a  larger  number 
than  attended  the  chemical  lectures  at  the  university.  He 
paid  close  attention  to  the  principles  of  ventilation  and 
drainage,  and  in  1836,  at  the  request  of  the  Government, 
he  suggested  many  changes  in  the  internal  structure  of 
the  old  houses  of  Parliament  in  London,  and  superin 
tended  their  execution.  His  work  was  so  highly  appre 
ciated  that  from  1840  to  1845  ne  was  engaged  mainly 
in  London,  superintending  the  drainage  and  ventilation 
of  the  present  Palace  of  Parliament,  and  succeeded  in 
perfecting  these  matters  as  fully  as  the  plans  of  the  archi 
tects  and  the  nature  of  the  site  permitted.  He  also  lect 
ured  about  this  time  in  many  of  the  larger  cities  in  Great 
Britain,  and  was  recognized  as  the  leading  authority  on 
ventilation  and  sewerage. 

In  1856  Reid  left  Britain,  and,  after  lecturing  in  many 
of  the  principal  American  cities,  became  Professor  of 
Applied  Chemistry  in  the  LTniversity  of  Wisconsin,  and 
afterward  one  of  the  Medical  Inspectors  of  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission.  He  was  a  man  of  consider 
able  energy,  a  clear  and  fluent  speaker,  and  an  interest 
ing  writer,  while  his  various  published  works  and  contri 
butions  to  "  transactions  "  and  periodicals  were  valuable 
and  widely  read.  He  died  at  Washington  in  1863,  in 
what  ought  to  have  been  the  very  meridian  of  his  life. 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  207 

In  another  chapter  mention  is  made  of  Alexander  Wil 
son,  the  ornithologist  and  poet,  who  would  have  been 
referred  to  at  more  length  here  did  not  his  prominence  as 
a  writer  induce  the  insertion  of  his  name  among  those 
who  have  done  something  to  further  America's  literary 
progress.  His  services  to  the  ornithology  of  the  United 
States,  however,  have  been  more  generally  valued  and 
recognized  than  his  ability  as  a  writer,  and  it  is  with  the 
view  of  recalling  his  earned  honors  in  the  world  of  books 
that  we  prefer  to  discuss  his  career  among  the  men  of 
letters  than  in  this  place.  But  his  labors  as  an  ornitholo 
gist  not  only  had  grand  results  in  themselves,  but  in 
duced  in  others  an  enthusiasm  for  study  along  the  same 
lines.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Wilson's  example  inspired 
Audubon  and  led  to  the  magnificent  career  of  that  genius 
as  a  naturalist. 

Among1  others  who  followed  in  Wilson's  footsteps  as 
an  ornithologist  mention  should  be  made  of  William 
Paterson  Turnbull,  whose  work  on  the  "  Birds  of  East 
Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,"  published  in  1869,  is 
a  model  of  patient  and  accurate  research  and  thoughtful 
study.  Turnbull  was  born  at  Fala,  Midlothian,  in  1830, 
and  was  educated  at  the  Edinburgh  High  School.  He 
took  up  the  study  of  ornithology  at  an  early  age,  and  a 
volume  on  the  birds  of  East  Lothian,  which  was  pub 
lished  in  Glasgow,  showed  that  he  was  an  observer  of  the 
closest  and  most  painstaking  type.  After  crossing  the 
Atlantic,  in  1851,  he  made  his  home  in  Philadelphia  and 
began  a  thorough  study  of  the  ornithology  of  the  coun 
try.  He  gradually  acquired  a  complete  library  of  the 
published  works  on  the  subject  and  succeeded  in  collect 
ing  many  letters,  manuscripts,  and  drawings  of  his  great 
hero — Alexander  Wilson.  Mr.  Turnbull  was  a  member 
of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  and  others  of  Phil 
adelphia's  scientific  societies,  a  genial,  amiable  man,  and 
his  death,  in  1871,  was  mourned  by  a  wide  circle  of 
friends. 

In  many  respects  the  most  extraordinary  of  the  Scotch 
inventors  whose  ingenuity  has  helped  to  swell  the  busi 
ness  of  the  Patent  Office  was  Hugh  Orr,  a  Renfrewshire 


208  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

man.  He  was  born  at  Lochwinnoch  in  1717,  and  trained, 
probably  in  Glasgow,  as  a  gun  and  lock  smith.  He  set 
tled  at  Bridgewater,  Mass.,  in  1737,  and  started  at  once 
in  business  as  a  maker  of  scythes  and  axes,  erecting  in 
connection  with  his  little  establishment  the  first  trip  ham 
mer  ever  seen  near  Boston.  His  business  prospered,  and 
his  manufactures  were  soon  found  all  over  the  New  Eng 
land  States.  In  fact,  for  many  years  he  was  the  only 
maker  of  edged  tools  in  that  section  of  the  country,  and 
from  his  employ,  as  time  went  on,  men  went  out  to  vari 
ous  parts  of  the  Colonies  and  so  built  up  a  new  industry, 
supplanting  imported  goods.  In  1753  Mr.  Orr  invented 
a  machine  for  dressing  flax,  and  in  the  cultivation  of  that 
plan  he  took  a  deep  interest,  and  succeeded,  in  the  long 
run,  in  making  it  a  profitable  agricultural  industry 
around  his  home  towrn.  The  subject  of  flax  raising  in 
deed,  seems  to  have  been  his  hobby,  and  in  it  he  found 
health  and  change  from  the  harassing  labors  of  his  foun 
dry.  Almost  every  man,  philosophers  tell  us,  requires 
to  have  a  hobby  of  some  sort,  and  it  is  well  when  it  takes 
the  form  of  something  practical,  something  that  may  be 
of  use  to  himself  and  to  his  fellow-creatures.  But  the 
hobby,  whatever  development  it  may  take,  should  be  en 
couraged  so  long  as  it  is  innocent  and  healthful.  Some 
men  take  to  photography,  others  to  athletics,  a  lawyer 
may  coquette  with  literature,  a  literary  man  may  make 
a  plaything  of  the  law,  a  preacher  may  try  gardening 
and  a  business  man  yachting.  But,  though  the  lawyer 
may  make  a  poor  litterateur  and  the  litterateur  be  a  tyro 
in  law  to  the  end  of  his  days;  though  the  preacher  be 
an  expensive  gardener,  raising  potatoes  at  a  cost  of  a  dol 
lar  apiece,  and  the  business  man's  heart  may  sink  to  his 
boots  in  a  gale,  such  changes  from  the  routine  of  men's 
daily  lives  are  beneficial  both  to  soul  and  body.  It  is 
rarely,  indeed,  that  a  man's  hobby  directs  him  to  study 
out  some  matter  that  is  at  all  likely  to  add  to  the  gen 
eral  wealth  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and  it  is  in  this  respect 
that  Hugh  Orr's  flax-raising  experiments  deserve  the 
highest  commendation. 

In  1748  Orr  made  some  five  hundred  stands  of  arms 


SCIENTISTS     AND    INVENTORS.  209 

for  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  which  were  de 
posited  in  Castle  William,  in  Boston  Harbor.  There  they 
were  in  due  time  seized  by  the  British,  and  it  is  said 
that  some  of  the  weapons  are  still  stored  in  the  museum 
in  the  Tower  of  London.  When  the  disputes  with  the 
mother  country  culminated  in  the  Revolution,  Orr  threw 
himself  into  the  ranks  of  the  Commonwealth  and  erected 
a  foundry  for  the  casting  of  brass  and  iron  ordnance  and 
the  making-  of  cannon  balls.  He  was  also  busily  em 
ployed  manufacturing  small  arms,  and  the  energy  he 
threw  into  all  his  work  astonished  his  contemporaries. 
After  peace  had  been  restored  Orr  returned  to  more  use 
ful  pursuits  than  manufacturing  life-destroying  weapons. 
In  company  with  two  Scotch  mechanics,  Robert  and 
Alexander  Barr,  he  constructed  some  carding,  roping, 
and  spinning  machines,  and  he  had  become  so  thorough 
a  Yankee  as  to  ask  for  an  appropriation  from  the  Legis 
lature  to  complete  them,  and  got  it.  The  machines  were 
the  first  of  their  kind  ever  seen  in  America,  so  that  On 
may  be  called  the  introducer  into  the  United  States  of 
the  "  spinning  jenny.1'  He  was  much  honored  by  his 
fellow-citizens,  and  served  as  a  State  Senator  from  Ply 
mouth  County  for  several  years  before  his  death,  in  1798. 
Orr's  son,  Robert,  was  the  first  to  make  iron  shovels  in 
New  England,  and  for  a  long  time  was  Master  Armorer 
in  the  United  States  Arsenal  at  Springfield. 

Scotsmen  are  still  "  beating  their  brains  "  to  supply  the 
American  forces  with  arms,  and  a  very  recent  example 
of  this  is  Mr.  James  P.  Lee,  the  inventor  of  the  Lee 
magazine  gun,  which  in  1895  was  adopted  by  the  United 
States  Navy.  Mr.  Lee  was  born  in  Roxburghshire  in  1837. 
On  leaving  school  he  learned  his  father's  trade  of  watch 
maker,  and  in  his  twentieth  year  went  to  Janesville,  Wis. 
From  there  he  removed  to  Stevens  Point,  in  the  heart  of 
the  lumber  region,  and  it  was  while  in  that  place  that  he 
first  began  the  series  of  experiments  which  culminated 
in  the  most  wonderful  gun  that  the  American  Navy  now 
possesses.  His  first  weapon  was  a  breech-loading-  rifle, 
which  v/as  submitted  to  the  Government  during  the 
civil  war  and  adopted.  Secretary  Stanton  gave  Lee  a 


210  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

contract  to  manufacture  the  weapon,  and  he  organized 
the  Lee  Firearms  Company,  with  a  factory  in  Milwaukee. 
The  company  did  not  prosper,  mainly  on  account  of  the 
high  cost  of  labor,  and  in  1870  Mr.  Lee  connected  him 
self  with  the  Remington  Company.  With  them  he  re 
mained  until  the  organization  of  the  Lee  Arms  Company 
of  Connecticut,  with  headquarters  at  Hartford.  Despite 
his  long  residence  in  America,  Mr.  Lee  is  an  enthusiastic 
Scot,  and  as  proud  of  the  Borderland  as  though  he  had 
never  been  fifty  miles  from  the  Tweed  all  his  life. 

Hugh  Orr,  as  we  have  seen,  was  one  of  the  first  to 
start  the  American  agricultural  implement  industry  on  its 
progress  to  become  the  best-known  of  all  the  manufact 
ures  of  the  country,  and  the  first  product  of  American 
mechanical  skill  to  occupy  a  pre-eminent  place  in  the 
markets  of  the  world.  One  of  the  most  noted  of  his 
successors  and  the  first  to  bring  about  that  perfection 
which  has  won  general  admiration  was  Henry  Burden, 
a  native  of  Dunblane,  who  came  to  America  in  1819,  in 
the  twenty-eighth  year  of  his  age.  He  had  received  a 
good  technical  education,  and  was  a  thorough  mechanic 
before  he  crossed  the  Atlantic,  but  his  ingenuity — his 
genius,  it  might  be  called — was  developed  by  the  require 
ments  of  the  new  country,  and,  settling  at  Troy,  he  be 
gan  the  manufacture  of  agricultural  implements.  His 
first  venture  was  an  improved  plough,  which  was  very 
successful,  and  he  sold  as  many  as  he  could  produce.  He 
also  introduced  the  first  cultivator  ever  seen  in  this  coun 
try,  and  was  continually  inventing  new  implements  or 
improving  those  already  in  use.  A  machine  for  making 
horseshoes  was  not  only  regarded  as  his  greatest  tri 
umph,  but  made  him  wealthy,  and  gradually  his  estab 
lishment  at  Troy  became  famous  as  one  of  the  most  ex 
tensive  in  the  world.  Mr.  Burden  took  a  deep  interest 
in  the  science  of  steam  navigation,  watched  its  progress 
closely,  and  himself  invented  a  4i  cigar  boat,"  with  which 
he  foresaw  great  possibilities,  but  was  forced  for  various 
reasons  to  lay  aside.  The  invention  was  regarded  sim 
ply  as  a  curiosity,  but  Mr.  Burden  had  no  conception  of 
concocting  mere'ly  what  might  be  regarded  as  a  sight  to 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  211 

astonish  visitors;  he  was  thoroughly  practical  in  all  his 
ideas,  and,  although  he  did  not  live  to  see  his  cigar  boat 
a  commercial  success,  its  principle  was  not  lost,  and  is 
to  be  found  in  the  "  whaleback  "  steamers  now  in  use 
on  the  great  lakes  and  in  many  of  the  modern  models 
of  torpedo  boats.  He  owned  patents  by  the  hundred, 
and  even  these  only  represented  a  part  of  the  fruits  of 
his  ingenuity.  At  his  death,  in  1871,  he  was  beyond 
question  the  most  successful  inventor  in  the  country,  and 
he  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the  products  of 
his  great  establishment  were  as  highly  appreciated  in 
Europe  as  in  the  markets  of  his  adopted  country. 

One  of  the  most  characteristically  Scotch  inventors 
the  writer  of  this  volume  ever  had  the  good  fortune  to 
meet  was  the  Rev.  Robert  Dick  of  Buffalo,  "  Brother 
Dick,"  as  he  was  most  generally  called.  He  was  at  once 
preacher,  lecturer,  newspaper  editor  and  writer,  teacher 
and  inventor,  a  man  of  the  highest  character,  always 
aiming  upward,  and  taking  a  deep  interest  in  the  moral 
elevation  of  the  people.  Mr.  Dick  was  born  at  Bathgate 
in  1814.  His  parents,  with  eleven  bairns,  determined  to 
emigrate  when  Robert  was  very  young,  and  settled  in 
Canada,  where  they  died  before  any  of  the  children  had 
attained  manhood.  The  lot  of  the  bairns  was,  as  might 
be  supposed,  a  hard  one.  Robert  managed  to  study  for 
the  ministry,  and  in  spite  of  many  disadvantages  and  hin 
drances — the  result  of  poverty — managed  to  graduate  at 
Hamilton  College,  Clinton,  in  1841.  Then  he  taught 
school  for  several  years,  held  several  pastorates,  and  in 
1854  established  at  Toronto  a  religious  paper  called 
:<  The  Gospel  Tribune."  All  this  time  he  found  his  re 
laxation  in  his  workshop.  He  was  always  inventing,  al 
ways  trying  to  put  his  mechanical  ideas  into  practice,  and 
to  devise  something  that  would  meet  a  popular  demand. 
His  newspaper  experience  finally  gave  him  a  clue,  and 
his  mailing  machine  not  only  met  a  pressing  demand, 
but  won  for  him  comparative  wealth.  His  business 
henceforth  was  devoted  to  these  machines,  their  per 
fection,  and  introduction,  and  they  became  part  of  the 
indispensable  outfit  of  nearly  every  large  newspaper  of- 


212  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

fice  on  the  continent.  But  he  never  abandoned  his  voca 
tion  of  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  and  even  in  the  midst 
of  his  business  journeys  was  always  ready  to  "  preach 
the  Word  "  or  to  do  something  by  speech,  purse,  or  pres 
ence  to  advance  the  cause  of  total  abstinence,  oi  which  he 
was  a  devoted  advocate.  His  life  was  a  useful  and 
lovable  one,  he  triumphed  over  great  obstacles,  he  was 
outspoken  in  denouncing  wrong,  and  even  while  im 
mersed  in  business  was  ever  ready  to  turn  aside  from 
temporal  cares  to  talk  of  things  celestial  and  say  a  word 
in  season.  Mr.  Dick  died  at  Buffalo,  a  city  that  had 
been  his  home  for  many  years,  in  1893. 

Alexander  Morton,  the  perfector,  if  not  the  inventor, 
of  gold  pens,  (for  his  claims  to  the  latter  distinction  have 
been  challenged,)  was  born  at  Darvel,  Ayrshire,  in  1820, 
and  became  a  resident  of  New  York  in  1845.  In  ^Si, 
after  many  experiments,  he  began  making  gold  pens,  and 
after  awhile,  with  his  improvements  in  pointing,  temper 
ing,  and  grinding,  his  manufacture  became  famous. 
Throughout  his  business  career  he  was  always  improv 
ing  these  useful  articles,  and  his  efforts  were  so  well  ap 
preciated  that  he  acquired  considerable  wealth  long  before 
his  untimely  death,  in  1860.  Another  noted  inventor  was 
William  Chisholm,  long  head  of  the  Union  Steel  Com 
pany  of  Cleveland,  Ohio.  He  was  born  at  Lochgelly, 
Fife'shire,  in  1825,  and,  along  with  his  brother  Henry 
started  the  Cleveland  Rolling  Mill.  He  was  constantly 
inventing  new  methods  in  machinery  and  mechanical 
implements,  and  particularly  hoisting  and  pumping  en 
gines,  and  \vas  the  first  to  demonstrate  the  practicability 
of  manufacturing  screws  from  Bessemer  steel. 

Early  in  1895  there  died  at  Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  an  in 
ventor  of  an  intensely  practical  turn  of  mind — practical, 
inasmuch  as  his  ambition  was  to  produce  inventions  that 
would  save  both  labor  and  material,  and  because  when  he 
once  got  into  a  groove  that  brought  him  success,  he  con 
tinued  to  develop  and  deepen  that  groove  all  through 
his  career.  This  was  Duncan  H.  Campbell,  who  was 
born  at  Greenock  in  1827  and  settled,  with  his  parents, 
in  Boston,  Mass.,  while  yet_a  lad,  When  he  finished  his 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  213 

public  school  course  he  was  sent  to  work  at  the  shoe 
business,  and  conceived  the  idea  of  having  machines  do 
a  great  part  of  the  work  which  he  saw  done  by  hand. 
Bit  by  bit,  his  inventions  revolutionized  the  entire  busi 
ness  and  made  it  become  the  important  factor  it  is  to 
day  in  the  industries  of  New  England.  He  invented 
pegging  machines,  stitching  machines,  a  lock-stitch  ma 
chine  for  sewing  uppers,  a  machine  for  using  waxed 
threads,  a  machine  for  covering  buttons  with  cloth — and 
it  is  hard  to  recall  all  what,  but  all  were  in  connection 
with  the  manufacture  of  shoes. 

An  equally  inventive  genius,  and  a  more  fortunate 
one,  so  far  as  financial  returns  was  concerned,  was 
Thomas  Dickson,  who  died  at  Scranton  in  1884,  and 
whose  name  was  for  years  the  most  prominent  in  that 
thriving  Pennsylvania  town,  and  is  yet  held  in  kind  re 
membrance.  Mr.  Dickson  was  born  at  Lauder  in  1822. 
He  left  Scotland  when  comparatively  young,  and  his 
first  employment  was  as  a  boy  in  charge  of  a  couple  of 
mules  on  the  towpath  of  a  canal  at  Carbondale,  Penn. 
From  that  he  gradually  rose  in  life,  until  he  was  known 
all  over  Pennsylvania  as  the  head  of  the  Dickson  Manu 
facturing  Company  at  Scranton,  and  then  he  acquired 
a  national  reputation  as  President  of  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  Canal  Company  and  as  a  Director  in  a  score 
or  more  of  other  corporations.  He  also  established  an 
iron  plant  on  Lake  Champlain,  and  was  ever  ready  to 
engage  in  any  enterprise  that  promised  to  aid  in  the  de 
velopment  of  the  country.  Mr.  Dickson's  ingenuity  and 
inventive  genius  kept  the  Dickson  Manufacturing  Com 
pany's  products  at  the  front  all  over  the  country,  and 
these  products  covered  a  great  variety  of  manufactures, 
from  locomotives  to  stoves.  He  was  a  man  of  consid 
erable  refinement,  and  his  elegant  home  at  Scranton, 
with  its  magnificent  library  and  large  and  well-selected 
gallery  of  paintings,  was  one  of  the  show  places  of  the 
city.  He  was  an  omnivorous  reader,  and  nothing  pleased 
him  better  than  to  spend  a  few  hours  each  day  in  the 
quiet  of  his  library,  while  his  pictures  were  a.  cc:;:t:.nt 
source  of  delight  to  him  and  others. 


214  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

For  many  years  one  of  the  most  popular  teachers  of 
elocution  in  Edinburgh  was  Alexander  Melville  Bell, 
whose  "  readings  "  were  regarded  as  among  the  most 
successful  of  each  season's  round  of  entertainments.  Mr. 
Bell,  who  was  born  in  Auld  Reekie  in  1819,  was  more 
than  a  mere  elocutionist.  He  possessed  the  qualities  of 
the  poet  and  actor,  and  never  gave  a  reading  on  any 
theme  if  he  did  not  thoroughly  appreciate  and  under 
stand  the  full  meaning  of  the  author.  He  wrote  much  on 
elocution,  and  always  from  a  scientific  standpoint.  He 
invented  a  method  for  removing  impediments  in  speech, 
and  as  author  of  "  Visible  Speech  "  was  the  first  to  show 
how  words  might  be  framed  and  meanings  conveyed  in 
the  absence  of  sound.  Somewhat  late  in  life  he  removed, 
with  his  family,  to  Canada,  and  became  instructor  in  elo 
cution  at  Queen's  University,  Kingston.  His  great  work 
was  his  investigations  among  deaf-mutes,  and  to  the 
end  of  his  long  life  he  was  constantly  engaged  in  prob 
lems  calculated  to  break  down  the  barriers  of  their  isola 
tion — to  bring  them  into  active  sympathy  with  the  rest 
of  the  world. 

In  spite  of  his  useful  labors,  however,  Mr.  Bell's  mem 
ory  would  be  by  this  time  only  a  reminiscence  to  a  few 
personal  friends  and  pupils  were  it  not  for  the  brilliant 
success  accomplished  bv  his  son  in  working  out  ideas 
on  the  same  line  as  his  father.  This  son,  Alexander  Gra 
ham  Bell — the  inventor  of  the  telephone — was  born  at 
Edinburgh  in  1847,  an<^  accompanied  his  father  to  Can 
ada.  In  1872  he  took  up  his  residence  in  Boston  as  a 
teacher  of  vocal  physiology,  .and,  like  his  father,  took  a 
deep  interest  in  the  education  of  deaf-mutes.  It  was  this 
that  led  to  the  romance  and  the  fortune  of  his  life — the 
invention  of  the  telephone  and  his  marriage.  One  ac 
count,  seemingly  by  Mr.  Bell  himself,  tells  the  story  as 
follows : 

"  The  history  of  the  telephone  has  been  so  often  writ 
ten  that  the  facts  relating  to  its  growth  and  development, 
its  legal  battles  and  patent  complications,  are  too  well 
known  to  need  repetition.  Few  people,  however,  are 
aware  that  an  interesting  romance  hides  in  the  back- 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  215 

ground.  To  go  back  to  the  beginning,  there  lived  in  the 
classic  shades  of  Cambridge  a  Mr.  Hubbard,  who  had 
four  charming  daughters.  His  youngest  daughter,  when 
but  five  years  of  age,  was  attacked  with  scarlet  fever, 
which  left  her  totally  deaf.  Everything  possible  was 
done  for  the  child.  She  was  sent  to  the  best  institutions 
in  Europe,  but  her  hearing  was  entirely  gone.  The  rudi 
ments  of  lip-reading  were  taught  to  her,  as  well  as  speak 
ing  by  means  of  mechanical  training  of  the  vocal  chords. 
On  her  return  to  her  home  her  father  decided  to  con 
tinue  her  education,  and  she  was  sent  to  an  institution 
in  Charleston.  It  was  here  she  first  met  Mr.  Graham 
Bell,  then  an  instructor  in  the  institution.  The  sequel 
"was  an  engagement  between  the  teacher  and  his  pupil. 

"  It  was  while  endeavoring  to  contrive  some  electrical 
method  by  which  his  fiancee  could  regain  her  lost  sense 
that  Mr.  Bell,  who  was  always  of  an  inventive  turn  of 
mind,  discovered  the  secret  of  the  transmitter  of  the  tele 
phone.  At  first  he  did  not  realize  the  importance  of  his 
discovery,  and  it  was  only  after  much  persuasion  that 
Mr.  Hubbard  induced  him  to  take  out  patents.  The  rest 
is  well  known." 

The  success  of  the  Bell  telephone  was  immediate,  and 
Mr.  Bell,  with  the  pertinacity  of  his  race,  kept  steadily  at 
work  improving  it,  leaving  the  commercial  side  of  the 
invention  to  be  managed  by  others.  In  1892,  after  a 
long  and  trying  series  of  experiments,  he  in  a  manner 
perfected  his  telephone  by  making  it  useful  for  any  dis 
tance.  On  October  18  of  that  year  he  opened  the  first 
telephone  connection  between  Chicago  and  New  York, 
and  its  success  demonstrated  that  distance  was  practi 
cally  no  bar  to  the  use  of  the  instrument.  Further  than 
this  into  the  story  of  the  telephone  we  need  not  go.  Its 
history — with  its  triumphs,  litigations,  and  heartburn 
ings — belongs  to  the  scientific  story  of  America.  At  his 
home  in  Washington  and  his  country  seat  at  Baddeck, 
Cape  Breton,  Mr.  Bell  is  still  busy  in  what  he  calls  his 
workshops,  but  the  secrets  of  these  places  are  carefully 
guarded.  The  possessor  of  immense  wealth,  he  can  af 
ford  to  experiment  with  whatever  he  has  on  hancl  until 


216  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

perfection  is  attained.  But  wondrous  stories  somehow 
creep  out,  and  one  is  to  the  effect  that  a  flying  machine 
will  in  time  make  the  name  of  Mr.  Bell  as  widely  as 
sociated  with  a  new  era  in  locomotion  as  it  has  been  with 
the  transmission  of  recognizable  sound. 

Among  practical  mechanics,  men  who  can  design  a:, 
well  as  themselves  handle  the  tools  which  fashion  their 
designs,  no  name  is  more  prominent  than  that  of  Henry 
Eckford.  This  once  famous  shipbuilder  left  Scotland  in 
1791,  when  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  tried  to  es 
tablish  himself  in  some  way  of  earning  a  living  at  Que 
bec.  The  opportunities  there,  however,  were  small,  and 
in  1796  he  crossed  the  St.  Lawrence,  settled  in  New 
York,  and  threw  in  his  future  with  the  United  States. 
But  he  did  not  ignore  his  native  land  by  his  change  of 
allegiance,  for  we  find  that  in  1802  he  joined  the  local 
St.  Andrew's  Society.  He  commenced  business  as  a 
boatbuilder  and  did  fairly  well,  but  his  great  oppor 
tunity  came  with  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of  1812, 
when  he  built  several  vessels  for  the  Government  to  en 
gage  in  service  on  the  great  lakes.  In  1822  he  built  the 
steamer  "  Robert  Fulton,"  which  made  the  first  success 
ful  steam  voyage  to  New  Orleans  and  Havana,  an  oc 
currence  that  attracted  attention  all  over  the  country. 
His  greatest  American  work  was  done  as  Naval  Con- 
sructor  at  the  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard,  an  appointment  he 
secured  in  1820,  for  while  there  he  built  six  ships  of  the 
line  from  his  own  models,  and  one  of  these,  the  "  Ohio," 
was  regarded  at  the  time  as  the  finest  vessel  of  her  kind 
in  the  world.  While  in  New  York  Eckford  resided  main 
ly  in  a  pleasant  rural  cottage  on  Love  Lane,  now  part  of 
West  Twenty-sixth  Street,  and  it  was  the  scene  of  many 
joyous  and  intellectual  gatherings.  One  of  his  closest 
friends  was  the  poet  Hallock,  who  was  a  frequent  vis 
itor  at  the  cottage,  with  many  other  of  the  leading  lit 
erary  men  and  thinkers  of  the  day,  as  well  as  Drake  and 
De  Kay — two  young  men  afterward  celebrated  as  poets 
—who  became  the  Scotch  shipbuilder's  sons-in-law. 

Eckford,  as  a  result  of  a  disagreement  with  the  United 
States  Government,  left  New  York  and  readily  found 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  217 

employment  in  designing  war  vessels  for  other  coun 
tries.  His  last  engagement  was  in  Turkey.  He  had 
built  a  sloop  of  war  for  Sultan  Mahoud,  and,  accepting 
the  offer  of  the  position  of  Chief  Naval  Constructor  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire,  he  proceeded  to  Constantinople, 
but  died  soon  after  he  reached  that  city,  in  1832. 

James  Ferguson,  who  between  1817  and  1819  was  as 
sistant  surveyor  of  the  Erie  Canal,  was  a  native  of  Perth 
shire,  where  he  was  born  in  1797.  From  1819  till  1822 
he  was  one  of  the  surveyors  on  the  boundary  commis 
sion  acting  under  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  of  Ghent, 
and  afterward  became  assistant  astronomer  of  the  United 
States  Naval  Observatory,  an  appointment  he  held  till 
his  death,  at  Washington,  in  1867.  His  career  as  an  as 
tronomical  student  was  a  very  brilliant  one,  and  he  was 
the  discoverer  of  three  asteroids,  for  which  he  received 
two  of  the  astronomical  prize  medals  given  by  the 
French  Academy  of  Sciences.  He  was  a  quiet,  unob 
trusive,  lovable  man,  immersed  in  his  studies,  and  re 
gardless  of  personal  labor  in  faithfully  fulfilling  whatever 
work  he  had  in  hand.  A  shallower  man  with  more  pre 
tensions  might  have  cut  a  greater  figure  in  the  world, 
but  he  had  no  regard  for  mere  fame,  and  was  satisfied 
with  his  own  consciousness  of  work  well  done. 

James  Pugh  Kirkwood,  who  in  1867  and  1868  was 
President  of  the  American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers, 
had  a  much  more  varied  career.  He  was  born  at  Edin 
burgh  in  1807,  and  learned  civil  engineering  and  meas 
uring  in  that  city.  On  taking  up  his  residence  in  Amer 
ica  in  1832  he  became  resident  consulting  engineer  on 
several  railroads.  His  first  prominent  appointment  was 
as  constructing  engineer  for  the  docks,  warehouses,  and 
other  Government  structures  at  Pensacola,  and  then  he 
secured  the  position  of  General  Superintendent  of  the 
Erie  Railroad.  From  1850  to  1855  he  was  chief  engi 
neer  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  system,  and  then  became  its 
consulting  engineer.  From  1856  to  1860"  he  was  chief 
engineer  of  the  Nassau  Water  Works,  Brooklyn,  and 
from  the  latter  date  he  acted  as  a  general  consulting 
engineer,  with  water  works  as  his  principal  specialty.  He 


218  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

took  charge  of  laying,  the  water  mains  on  Eighth  Ave 
nue,  New  York,  into  a  rock  bed  which  was  cut  accord 
ing  to  his  directions,  and  the  wTork  at  the  time  attracted 
much  attention  among  engineering  experts  on  account 
of  its  difficulty.  His  latter  years  were  spent  mainly  in 
Brooklyn,  and  he  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  leaders  in 
his  profession,  and  enjoyed  the  respect  and  affection  of 
a  wide  circle  of  friends.  His  death,  in  18/7,  was  the 
occasion  fcr  a  host  of  tributes  being  paid  to  his  services 
and  worth  by  societies,  newspapers,  and  individuals. 

A  career  which  run  on  somewhat  similar  lines  was 
that  of  James  Laurie,  who  was  born  in  1811  at  Bell's 
Mills  and  settled  in  America  in  1832.  In  fact,  he  was 
closely  associated  with  Kirkwood  in  considerable  rail 
road  work,  and  the  two  men  entertained  the  warmest 
friendship  for  each  other,  until  Laurie's  death,  at  Hart 
ford,  Conn.,  in  18/5.  His  first  notable  appointment  was 
as  chief  engineer  on  the  Norwich  and  Worcester  Rail 
road;  then  he  filled  a  similar  office  on  the  New  Jersey 
Central  Road,  and  later  was  consulting  engineer  in  Mas 
sachusetts  in  connection  with  the  Housatonic  Tunnel. 
As  Mr.  Kirkwood  made  a  specialty  of  water  works,  so 
Mr.  Laurie,  in  time,  made  a  particular  study  of  bridge 
building,  and  was  regarded  as  the  foremost  practical  au 
thority  on  that  specialty  in  America,  so  that  his  services 
as  consulting  engineer  on  such  structures  were  in  con 
stant  demand.  Among  other  of  his  achievements  it  may 
be  mentioned  that  he  built  the  wrought-iron  bridge  over 
the  Connecticut  River  at  Windsor  Locks,  the  first  of  its 
kind  in  the  country.  Mr.  Laurie  was  honored  by  his  pro 
fessional  friends  by  being  elected  the  first  President  of 
the  American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  an  organization 
in  the  founding  of  which  he  took  a  deep  interest. 

Donald  Craig  McCallum  was  a  soldier  as  well  as  a 
civil  engineer,  and  during  his  career  did  much  good 
work  in  both  capacities.  He  was  born  at  Johnstone, 
Renfrewshire,  in  1815,  and  emigrated  with  his  parents 
and  the  rest  of  his  family  in  1832.  They  settled  in  Roch 
ester,  N.  Y.,  and  soon  after  Donald  started  in  the  battle 
of  life  by  learning  the  tailoring  trade,  That  business  did 


SCIENTISTS     AND     INVENTORS.  219 

not  suit  him,  and,  going  to  Canada,  he  became  a  car 
penter  and  studied  architecture.  Then  he  returned  to 
Rochester,  engaged  in  business  for  himself  as  a  builder, 
and  did  fairly  well.  He  took  a  special  interest  in  rail 
road  and  bridge  construction,  invented  what  was  known 
as  the  "  inflexible  arch  truss  bridge,"  and  gradually  left 
off  his  building  operations  to  become  a  constructor  of 
railroads  and  bridges.  In  1855  he  became  General  Su 
perintendent  of  the  Erie  Railroad.  During  the  war  he 
was  appointed  director  of  the  military  railroads  in  the 
United  States,  and  in  that  capacity  he  not  only  rendered 
particularly  brilliant  services  at  critical  periods  by  mass 
ing  troops  at  certain  strategic  points,  but  he  maintained 
the  entire  service  in  a  state  of  efficiency  that  contrasted  in 
a  wonderfully  favorable  manner  with  the  disorganized 
condition  of  many  of  the  other  administrative  depart 
ments  of  the  Northern  Army.  His  services  with  Sher 
man  on  that  soldier's  memorable  march  to  the  sea  were 
conspicuously  valuable  and  won  the  highest  encomiums 
from  all  in  authority.  When  the  war  was  over,  McCal- 
lum,  who  had  enjoyed  the  rank  of  Colonel  in  the  United" 
States  Army,  retired  from  service  with  the  honors  of  a 
Major  General,  and  until  his  death,  in  Brooklyn,  in  1878, 
confined  his  attention  to  civil  pursuits.  Gen.  McCallum 
was  more  anxious  to  be  known  as  a  poet  than  a  soldier 
or  engineer,  and  in  1879  issued  a  small  volume  contain 
ing  specimens  of  his  muse.  They  are  full  of  fine  senti 
ment,  lofty  thought,  sage  reflection,  and  timely  admoni 
tion,  and,  while  no  one  would  award  their  writer  a 
position  among  the  foremost  ranks  of  singers,  he  deserves 
a  marked  place  among  what  Mr.  Stedman  happily  calls 
the  "  general  choir."  One  poem,  "  The  Water  Mill,"  is 
certain  to  live  in  literature,  but  the  authorship  has  been 
questioned  by  some  writers,  and  the  problem,  like  most 
others  of  the  kind,  is  a  vexing  one.  The  poem,  how 
ever,  has  generally  been  attributed  to  McCallum,  al 
though  we  are  not  aware  that  he  ever  gave  personally 
any  information  on  the  subject;  but,  even  if  this  beauti 
ful  bit  of  sentiment  be  taken  away  from  him,  enough  re 
mains  of  his  undoubted  compositions  to  entitle  him  to  a 


220  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

very  respectable  place  among  the  minor  bards  of  Amer 
ica. 

A  fair  representative  of  the  Scottish  working  engi 
neer,  the  men  who  do  their  work  so  well  that  their  serv 
ices  are  always  in  demand,  and  who  are  ready  to  develop 
into  heroes  or  millionaires  as  time  and  chance  may  offer, 
might  be  found  in  George  M.  Wait,  who  died  at  Brook 
lyn  in  1894.    He  was  a  native  of  Dunse,  (Duns  they  call 
it  now,)  Berwickshire,  and  was  born  in  that  staid  old- 
fashioned  town  in  1825.     After  serving  his  apprentice 
ship  in  a  "  machine  shop,"  he  developed  into  a  railroad 
engineer,  and  then  devoted  himself  to  marine  engineer 
ing.    He  came  to  America  shortly  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  civil  war,  and  when  that  cloud  darkened  the  country 
he  volunteered  his  services  to  the  Union   Navy.    Such 
offers  from  such  men  were  then  gladly  received,  and  Mr. 
Wait  found   himself   enrolled   as   chief   engineer  of  the 
warship  Monticello.     One  of  his  most  daring  acts  was 
the  cutting  of  the  chains  which  the   Confederates  had 
placed  across  the  Mississippi  River  to  obstruct  the  Fed 
eral  fleet  in  its  purpose  to  get  near  enough  to  New  Or 
leans  to  bombard  it.  Mr.  Wait  had  many  narrow  escapes 
in   the   course   of  his  service,  but  the   narrowest  of  all 
came  from  his  own  side,  when  Gen.  Butler  in  a  moment 
of  haste  ordered  Commander  Braine  (afterward  Admi 
ral)  and  Chief  Engineer  Wait  to  be  hanged  for  disobey 
ing  his  orders.    The  carrying  out  of  these  orders  was  an 
impossibility,  and  Butler  fortunately  recovered  his  tem 
per   before  the   sentences   were   carried   out   and   came 
round,  as  gracefully  as  he  could,  to  Wait's  way  of  think 
ing  on  the  matter  at  issue.    Wait  afterward  became  chief 
engineer  for  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company,  and 
his  last  employment  was  on  some  local  boats  making 
daily  excursions  from  New  York  Harbor,  as  he  did  not 
care  about  being  deprived,  as  old  age  began  to  creep  on, 
of  the  comforts  of  his  own  fireside. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MERCHANTS    AND    MUNICIPAL    BUILDERS. 

IT  may  safely  be  laid  down  as  a  self-evident  truth  that 
every  Scotsman  in  America  who  has  gained  position  or 
eminence  or  wealth,  or  all  three,  has  worked  hard. 
Among  the  Scotch  community,  even  in  the  fourth  or 
fifth  generation  removed  from  the  "  Land  o'  Cakes," 
there  are  no  idlers,  no  "  gilded  youth/1  no  merely  empty 
loungers  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  We  find  Scotsmen 
and  their  families  moving  in  the  very  highest  social  cir 
cles  in  each  community — among  the  "  Four  Hundred," 
to  use  a  ridiculous  expression  that  has  come  into  use  in 
recent  years — but  they  all  seem  to  engage  in  business  of 
some  sort.  They  do  not  figure  much,  if  at  all,  in  what 
loves  to  be  distinguished  as  the  "  smart  set,"  the  butter 
flies  whose  only  object  in  the  wrorld  seems  to  be  to  de 
rive  pleasure  from  it,  pleasure  sometimes  innocent,  some 
times  brutal,  sometimes  silly,  always  extravagant,  and  a 
standing  menace  to  the  peace  of  the  community.  The 
main  purpose  in  life,  if  there  be  any  purpose,  after  all,  of 
such  creatures  is  to  draw  themselves  into  a  class  apart 
from  the  common  herd,  to  ape  the  manners  of  the  aris 
tocracy  of  the  Old  World,  and  this  latter  purpose  they 
accomplish  in  such  a  way  as  to  win  the  disgust  of  every 
honest  citizen  and  the  contempt  of  every  honest  aris 
tocrat. 

If  we  designed  to  devote  a  chapter  to  titled  person 
ages  in  this  book,  it  might  easily  be  done.  The  advent 
ures  of  the  members  of  the  British  peerage  alone  in 
America  would  fill  many  pages  and  would  include  sol 
diers,  statesmen,  sightseers,  hunters  and  adventurers — for 
even  the  latter  class  are  found  legitimately  occupying  a 

221 


222  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

line,  at  least,  in  the  standard  peerages.  Such  a  chapter 
would,  however,  include  names  like  that  of  Lady  Mac^ 
donald,  who  enjoys  a  peerage  through  the  services  which 
her  late  husband,  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  rendered  to  the 
Empire;  and  of  Lord  Mount  Stephen,  who  won  his  peer 
age  by  his  own  successful  and  eminently  useful  life,  as 
well  as  those  of  many  baronets  and  knights.  It  would 
also  refer  to  an  old  title,  that  of  Baron  de  Longueuil,  a 
French  title  of  nobility  originally  granted  by  Louis 
XIV.,  but  recognized  by  Great  Britain.  The  dignity 
was  first  conferred  on  a  French  subject,  Charles  Le 
Moyne,  but  as  might,  somehow,  be  expected,  the  pres 
ent  holder  of  the  title,  Charles  Colman  Grant,  is  more 
entitled  to  be  regarded  as  of  Scotch  descent  than  the 
representative  of  a  French  family.  The  chapter  would 
also  chronicle  the  story  of  an  old  Scotch  title  which  has 
been  so  long  held  by  residents  of  this  country  that  they 
pride  themselves  as  much  from  their  descent  from  Colo 
nial  ancestors  as  from  their  Saxon  forbears — Saxons 
who  were  prominent  in  England  before  the  advent  oi 
the  Normans.  The  title.  Baron  Cameron  of  Fairfax,  in 
the  peerage  of  Scotland,  was  bestowed  by  Charles  I.  in 
1627  upon  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  of  Denton,  an  English 
man.  The  family  never  had  any  connection  with  Scot 
land,  however,  beyond  the  title,  but  the  name  yet  stands 
on  the  roll  of  the  Scottish  peers  and  is  still  called  at  each 
assemblage  of  these  peers  in  Holyrood  to  elect  their  rep 
resentatives  in  the  British  House  of  Lords.  The  repre 
sentative  of  the  family,  the  holder  of  this  ancient  title, 
still  resides  in  Virginia,  but  so  far  as  we  can  trace  he 
and  his  immediate  progenitors,  as  soldiers,  preachers,  or 
physicians,  have  done  something  to  justify  their  exist 
ence,  have  pursued  some  recognized  profession. 

But  all  this  reference  to  nobility  is  merely  a  digres 
sion  by  way  of  variety  in  the  opening  matter  of  a  new 
department  of  our  story.  Here  we  have  to  deal  with 
what  may  be  called  the  nobility  of  business.  To  acquire 
eminence  in  trade,  finance,  or  commerce,  especially  in 
view  of  the  ever-watchful  and  sometimes  unscrupulous 
competition  which  prevails  in  all  large  business  centres, 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       223 

a  man  needs  rare  qualities,  and  a  successful  merchant  is 
generally  an  individual  possessing  not  only  a  clear  head, 
but  a  large  heart.  If  we  could  enumerate  the  practical 
charitable  institutions  of  the  world,  group  together  the 
art  galleries,  museums,  and  halls  of  learning,  we  would 
find  that  successful  business  men,  when  not  their  found 
ers,  were  their  most  liberal  benefactors.  We  will  get 
abundant  evidence  of  this  as  the  present  chapter  pro 
ceeds,  and  will  find  also  that  these  same  business,  money- 
making,  men  were  sterling  and  self-sacrificing  patriots 
whenever  occasion  arose  for  the  display  of  that  quality. 
Such  men  are  entitled  to  be  called  nature's  noblemen — 
men  who  hold  their  patents  of  nobility  from  Almighty 
God. 

We  could  place  the  life,  for  instance,  of  Alexander 
Milne,  an  Edinburgh  man  who  was  long  a  merchant  in 
New  Orleans,  as  a  pattern — one  which  could  be  sur 
passed  by  the  product  of  no  other  class.  After  a  note 
worthy  and  commercially  irreproachable  career,  he  be 
came  distinguished  for  his  philanthropy,  although  the 
world  never  knew  its  extent  or  imagined  the  amount  of 
thought  and  care  he  exercised  in  trying  to  do  as  much 
good  as  possible  to  his  fellow-men.  Even  the  good  he 
did  lived — and  lives — after  he  had  passed  away,  for  when 
he  died,  in  1838,  at  the  age  of  ninety-four  years,  it  was 
found  that  he  left  most  of  his  fortune  to  endow  the  Milne 
Hospital  for  the  orphan  boys  of  New  Orleans. 

In  treating  of  the  classes  embraced  in  the  title  to  this 
chapter  we  are  more  than  ever  overwhelmed  by  the  diffi 
culty  of  selection.  There  is  hardly  a  city  or  township  in 
which  Scotsmen  have  not  more  or  less  prominently  fig 
ured  in  its  business  interests.  In  financial  circles  every 
where,  whether  in  Montreal  or  New  York,  they  have 
held  a  front  rank,  and  that  might  be  said  also  of  every 
branch  of  business.  We  can  only  array  a  few  examples, 
selected  almost  at  random,  and  endeavor  to  be  as  repre 
sentative  in  each  selection  as  possible. 

The  founder  of  the  famous  town  of  Yorktown,  Va., 
was  Thomas  Nelson,  who  was  born  in  1677  m  Cumber 
land,  not  far  from  the  Scottish  border.  His  parents  had 


224  ?HE   SCOT   IN  AMERICA. 

moved  there  from  Wigtonshire  shortly  after  their  mar 
riage,  and  the  district  was  more  Scotch  in  its  speech, 
manners,  and  customs  than  English,  so  that,  although 
actually  born  on  what  Scotsmen  playfully  call  the 
"  wrong  side  of  the  Tweed,"  Nelson  was  in  reality  a 
Scot.  Indeed,  after  his  arrival  in  America,  about  1700, 
he  was  generally  known  as  "  Scotch  Torn,''  and  appears 
to  have  been  quite  proud  of  the  appellation.  He  started 
in  business,  began  at  once  to  make  money,  and  in  1705 
founded  the  town  of  York — one  of  the  few  really  historic 
towns  in  America — which  witnessed  the  surrender  of 
Cormvallis  in  1781  and  was  the  scene  of  a  stirring-  con 
flict  between  the  forces  of  McClellan  and  Magruder  in 
1862,  during  the  civil  war.  Nelson  died  full  of  years  and 
honors,  in  1745,  in  the  town  he  had  founded  and  which  he 
had  been  spared  to  see  grow  slowly  and  surely.  If  he 
did  not  hold  high  office,  he  founded  a  family  which  has 
made  its  mark  in  the  history  of  his  adopted  State.  One 
of  his  sons,  Thomas,  was  a  candidate  for  Governor  of 
Virginia,  but  was  defeated  by  the  celebrated  Patrick 
Henry,  (also  of  Scotch  descent^)  and  afterward  for  thirty 
"yearlTwas  Secretary  of  the  Privy  Council.  Another  son, 
William,  was  President  of  the  Council  for  a  long  time, 
and  on  the  death  of  Lord  Botetourt  became  Governor 
of  Virginia  and  administered  its  affairs  for  about  a  year, 
until  the  arrival  of  the  Earl  of  Dunmore  in  1771.  He 
died  a  year  later,  leaving  three  sons,  who  all  became  fa 
mous.  One  of  these  sons,  Thomas,  who  was  born  in 
Virginia  in  1738,  was  educated  partly  in  America  and 
partly  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  As  might  be  ex 
pected,  he  ranged  himself  on  the  side  of  the  patriots,  and 
as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  was  outspoken 
in  his  condemnation  of  whatever  tended  to  abridge  the 
freedom  of  the  Colonies.  "  He  was  a  member,"  says  Miss 
M.  V.  Smith,  in  her  able  volume  on  "  The  Governors  of 
Virginia,"  "  of  the  Revolutionary  Conventions  of  1774 
and  1775,  and  was  appointed  by  the  convention  in  July, 
1775,  Colonel  of  the  Second  Virginia  Regiment,  which 
post  he  resigned  on  being  elected  to  the  Continental 
Congress  in  the  same  year.  H  was  again  called  to  ad- 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       225 

minister  home  affairs,  and  was  a  prominent  member  of 
the  Virginia  Convention  of  1776,  which  met  in  May  to 
frame  a  Constitution  for  her  Government.  Here  he  of 
fered  a  resolution  instructing  the  Virginia  delegates  in 
Congress  to  propose  a  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Having  been  elected  one  of  these  delegates,  he  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  the  hopes  and  wishes  of  his  people 
embodied  in  a  crystallized  form,  and,  with  unfaltering 
faith  in  its  declarations,  set  his  seal  to  the  historic  in 
strument  July  4,  1776."  In  1777  he  became  Commander 
in  Chief  of  the  forces  in  the  State,  and  devoted  not  only 
his  time  but  his  means  to  the  war.  In  1781  he  was 
chosen  Governor  of  Virginia,  but  his  health  was  then 
broken.  He  soon  resigned  the  office,  and,  retiring  to 
Hanover  County,  resided  there  in  seclusion  till  his  death, 
in  1789.  He  lost  his  fortune  in  the  war,  sacrificed  every 
thing  he  had  to  the  State,  and  the  State  was  too  poor  to 
recoup  him,  so  his  latter  years  were  passed  amidst  pov 
erty.  But  he  never  complained  on  that  score,  and  await 
ed  the  last  roll-call  conscious  that  he  had  done  everything 
a  patriot  could  do  to  advance  and  establish  his  native  land. 
Two  of  Gov.  Thomas  Nelson's  brothers,  William  and 
Robert,  were  in  the  Revolutionary  Army,  and  both  were 
captured  by  Col.  Tarleton's  forces.  When  the  struggle 
was  over,  William  engaged  in  the  practice  of  law  until 
1803,  when  he  became  Professor  of  Law  at  William  and 
Mary  College.  On  his  death,  in  1813,  he  was  succeeded 
in  that  office  by  Robert,  who  held  it  for  five  years,  or 
until  he  died,  in  1818.  The  public  services  of  the  family 
were  continued,  as  far  as  our  records  go,  to  the  fourth 
generation  after  u  Scotch  Tom,"  for  Gov.  Thomas  Nel 
son's  son,  Hugh,  was  a  member  of  Congress  for  Vir 
ginia  during  several  terms,  and  in  1823  was  appointed  by 
President  Monroe  United  States  Minister  to  Spain. 

The  family  of  Thomas  Campbell,  author  of  "  The 
Pleasures  of  Hope  "  and  of  "  Gertrude  of  Wyoming," 
had  rather  an  intimate  connection  with  America.  His 
father,  Alexander  Campbell,  the  son  of  a  landed  proprie 
tor,  was  born  at  Kirnan,  in  the  parish  of  Glassary,  Ar 
gyllshire,  in  1710.  He  was  trained  to  the  mercantile  pro- 


226  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

fession  in  Glasgow,  and  in  early  life  crossed  the  Atlantic 
and  settled  at  Falmouth,  Va.,  where  he  engaged  in  busi 
ness  for  several  years  and  acquired  considerable  means. 
There,  too,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  countryman 
named  Daniel  Campbell,  afterward  his  brother-in-law. 
Returning  to  Scotland,  the  two  Campbells  founded  the 
firm  of  Alexander  &  Daniel  Campbell  and  engaged  in 
the  Virginia  trade.  In  this  they  amassed  considerable 
wealth  and  became  recognized  as  among  the  leading 
merchants  in  a  trade  whose  very  name  was  then  regarded 
as  synonymous  with  opulence.  In  1756  Alexander  Camp 
bell  married  a  sister  of  his  partner,  and  had  a  fam 
ily  of  eight  sons  and  four  daughters.  One  of  these  sons, 
it  may  be  said,  afterward  emigrated  to  America  and  mar 
ried  a  daughter  of  Patrick  Henry,  the  great  Governor 
of  Virginia.  Thomas,  the  poet,  the  youngest  of  the  fam 
ily,  was  born  at  Glasgow  in  1777,  but  two  years  before 
that  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  War  had  knocked 
away  the  props  of  the  Campbells'  business  and  the  poet's 
father  and  uncle  were  practically  ruined,  the  former  hav 
ing  lost  some  £20,000,  the  savings  of  a  life  devoted  to 
business.  We  have  no  interest  here  with  the  personal 
career  of  the  poet,  except  we  choose  to  speculate  how 
far  the  stories  his  father  may  have  told  of  America  influ 
enced  him  to  look  for  a  theme  for  his  muse  in  the  tradi 
tions  of  the  beautiful  Wyoming  Valley.  An  uncle  of  the 
poet — Archibald  Campbell,  an  Episcopalian  minister — 
was  located  for  some  time  in  Jamaica,  but  settled  in 
America  about  the  same  time  as  his  brother  Alexander. 
He  remained  in  Virginia  after  his  brother  left  to  begin  a 
business  career  in  Glasgow,  and  in  time  threw  in  his  lot 
with  the  Colonists  when  the  struggle  came  which  welded 
the  Colonies  into  a  nation.  He  was  a  much-esteemed 
minister,  and  had  among  his  parishioners  such  men  as 
Washington  and  Lee — the  famous  "  Light-Horse 
Harry  "  of  the  Revolution. 

Sir  William  Dunbar,  who  appears  to  have  belonged  to 
the  old  Banffshire  house  of  Dunbar  of  Durn,  now  repre 
sented  by  a  family  in  Australia,  was  a  noted  personage  in 
American  business  and  political  circles  for  many  years. 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        227 

He  was  born  in  1740,  and  appears  to  have  landed  at 
Philadelphia  about  1771,  just  when  matters  were  ap 
proaching  an  interesting  crisis  with  the  Home  Govern 
ment.  In  company  with  John  Ross,  a  once  well  known 
and  prosperous  merchant  in  the  Quaker  City,  and  who  in 
1774  was  honored  by  being  chosen  as  Vice  President  of 
the  local  St.  Andrew's  Society,  Dunbar  formed  in  1773  a 
partnership  for  opening  a  plantation  in  West  Florida. 
The  affair  did  not  seem  to  be  a  success,  and  Dunbar 
moved  to  Baton  Rouge,  near  New  Orleans,  and  finally 
to  Natchez,  Miss.,  where  he  managed  to  get  possession 
of  a  plantation,  and  where  he  died  in  1810.  He  led  the 
career  of  an  adventurer  and  suffered  the  usual  ups  and 
downs  of  fortune  incidental  to  such  a  career,  but  his  lat 
ter  years  seem  to  have  been  pleasant  and  prosperous. 
He  had  assumed  allegiance  to  the  Federal  Government, 
from  motives  of  policy  rather  than  frcm  any  deep-seated 
principle,  and  under  it  held  several  important  offices. 
He  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  cor 
responded  with  him  at  frequent  intervals,  and  to  the 
:>  Transactions  "  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society 
of  Philadelpha,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  he  contrib 
uted  a  number  of  papers  on  various  subjects,  all  of  which 
were  considered  valuable  in  their  day. 

Among  the  early  merchants  of  Virginia  no  name 
stands  higher  or  is  surrounded  with  more  honorable  as 
sociations  than  that  of  Thomas  Rutherfoqrcl  of  Richmond.  -1 
He  was  born  at  Kirkcaldy,  Fifeshire,  in  1766,  but  was 
educated  in  Glasgow,  where  his  family  removed  while  he 
was  an  infant.  In  that  city,  too,  he  received  his  mercan 
tile  training,  and  when  he  reached  early  manhood  he  se 
cured  a  position  in  the  house  of  Hawkesley  &  Ruther- 
foord  of  Dublin,  the  junior  partner  in  which  was  his  elder 
brother.  In  1784  he  was  sent  by  the  firm  to  Virginia  in 
charge  of  cargoes  in  two  vessels,  the  value  of  the  goods 
being  placed  at  $50,000.  He  was  well  recommended  to 
the  local  business  men  of  Virginia,  and  among  others  he 
carried  a  letter  of  introduction  to  George  Washington, 
which  had  been  given  him  by  Sir  Edward  Neversham, 
then  member  of  Parliament  for  Dublin.  Rutherfoord  took 


P28  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

up  his  quarters  in  Richmond,  where  he  opened  a  branch 
establishment  to  the  Dublin  house  and  quickly  put  it  on 
a  substantial  footing.  After  some  four  years  spent  in 
Richmond  he  returned  to  Ireland  and  was  admitted  as  a 
partner  in  the  firm  to  which  he  had  proved  so  faithful 
and  profitable  a  servant.  His  stay  in  Ireland  lasted  only 
about  a  year,  and  in  1789  he  was  once  more  in  Rich 
mond,  which  was  henceforth  to  be  his  home.  His  busi 
ness  career  was  a  continued  round  of  prosperity,  and  he 
gradually  became  regarded  as  one  of  the  wealthiest  and 
most  upright  merchants  of  the  city.  His  life  was  a  pleas 
ant  one,  although  as  general  merchant,  miller,  importer, 
and  exporter  the  daily  routine  of  his  affairs  was  for  many 
years  of  the  most  engrossing  description.  He  invested 
his  means  largely  in  Richmond  real  estate,  until  he  was 
the  most  extensive  owner  of  that  class  of  property  in  the 
city,  and  even  this  reputation  added  to  his  wealth,  for 
others,  seeing  the  sagacious  Scot  sinking  his  money  in 
land,  followed  his  example,  and  so  raised  values  all 
around.  But  Mr.  RutherfoorcFs  days  were  not  wholly  de 
voted  to  business;  he  found  time  for  all  the  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  the  city  that  any  true  citizen  should  take, 
and  his  public  spirit  and  liberality  were  as  conspicuous 
as  his  wealth.  He  was  bitterly  opposed  to  tariffs  or  to 
anything  that  looked  like  an  abridgment  "oTTndividual, 
state,  or  national  freedom,  and  the  papers  he  published 
on  such  questions  and  on  commercial  matters  attracted 
wide  attention.  In  1841  he  was  selected  to  draft  a  peti 
tion  to  President  Tyler  protesting  against  the  imposition 
of  tariff  duties,  and  the  Chief  Executive  of  the  Nation 
found  in  Rutherfoord  a  man  whose  sterling  honesty,  de 
voted  earnestness,  singleness  of  purpose,  and  native  in 
telligence  won  his  entire  respect.  Years  afterward  Presi 
dent  Tyler,  when  lecturing  at  Richmond,  referred  to  his 
acquaintance  with  Rutherfoord  in  words  that  evinced  his 
high  appreciation  of  the  Scottish-American  merchant, 
whose  earthly  career  closed  at  Richmond  in  1852. 

John  Rutherfoord  married  an  American  girl  and  left 
thirteen  children,  whose  descendants  are  found  all  over 
the  Union>  although  principally  in  Virginia.  Of  his 


MERCHANTS     AND      MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        229 

children  the  eldest  son,  John,  who  was  born  in  Rich 
mond  in  1792,  graduated  from  Princeton  College  in  1810 
with  the  degree  of  M.  A.  and  then  applied  himself  to  the 
study  of  the  law.  In  1826  he  was  elected  to  the  House 
of  Delegates  from  the  City  of  Richmond,  and  in  1830 
was  one  of  the  Councillors  of  State.  As  senior  Council 
lor,  he  became  in  1841  Acting  Governor  of  Virginia  and 
served  in  that  capacity  for  a  year  with  marked  accept 
ance.  Gov.  Rutherfoord  died  in  1866,  "  leaving,"  says 
one  of  his  biographers,  "  the  memory  of  a  man  of  strong 
intellect  and  vigorous  character  combined  with  those  en 
during  charms  which  ever  attach  to  a  modest,  virtuous, 
and  unassuming  gentleman." 

In  the  records  of  the  Albany  (New  York)  St.  Andrew's 
Society  there  is  a  notice  of  the  family  of  John  Stevenson, 
the  first  President  of  the  organization,  which  had  been 
prepared  by  one  of  his  descendants  and  read  at  the  an 
nual  meeting  on  St.  Andrew's  Day,  1878.  As  it  is  inter 
esting  on  account  of  its  tracing  a  family's  history  from 
its  foundation  and  also  on  account  of  showing  how  the 
sturdy  Scots  made  themselves  at  home  in  America,  and 
became  regarded  as  part  and  parcel  of  its  people,  the 
sketch  is  here  reproduced,  with  only  slight  curtailment: 

"  John  Stevenson  was  born  in  Albany  March  13,  1735. 
His  father,  James  Stevenson,  a  Scottish  gentleman,  came 
to  America  after  the  'rising'  in  1715.  He  was  a  free 
holder  in  the  city  in  1720  and  a  friend  of  Robert  Living 
ston,  the  possessor  of  large  tracts  of  wild  land  on  the 
Hudson,  which  by  the  favor  of  the  ruling  powers  had 
been  erected  into  a  manor.  Stevenson  was  something  of 
a  military  man,  and  held  several  responsible  local  trusts, 
among  which  was  that  of  receiver  of  taxes.  James 
Stevenson  and  his  son  John  seem  to  have  had  a  taste  for 
classical  and  polite  literature,  if  the  books  they  possessed 
be  taken  as  an  indication. 

"James  Stevenson  died  Feb.  2,  1769,  and  was  buried 
in  the  church  which  then  stood  on  the  hill  in  State  Street. 
His  name  appears  on  the  still  sonorous  old  bell,  cast  in 
1751,  which  hangs  in  the  tower  of  St.  Peter's.  Among 
his  Scottish  friends  in  Albany  may  be  named  Janicv. 


230  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Lyndsay,  Esq.,  and  Capt.  Dick  of  the  army.  His  son, 
John  Stevenson,  and  Philip  Livingston,  one  of  the  Sign 
ers  of  the  Declaration,  were  tenants  in  common  of  an 
estate  of  more  than  8,000  acres  on  the  Mohawk,  called 
Lilacs  Bush. 

"  John  Stevenson  also  owned  other  large  tracts  of 
land.  He  married  Magdalen,  sister  of  John  de  Peyster 
Douw,  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Safety  in  this 
State  during  the  Revolutionary  War.  He  was  fitted  by 
position,  education,  and  natural  abilities  for  public  serv 
ice,  but  he  preferred  a  private  station.  Mr.  Stevenson 
was  an  early  stockholder  in  the  Bank  of  North  America 
at  Philadelphia,  the  oldest  bank  in  this  country,  and  also 
in  the  Bank  of  New  York  and  the  Bank  of  Albany,  now 
defunct,  and  was  a  contributor  to  the  foundation  of 
L'nion  College. 

"John  Stevenson  died  April  24,  1810,  aged  seventy- 
five  years.  His  only  son,  James,  lived  and  died  in  Al 
bany.  He  was  a  patron  of  the  Albany  Academy  and  act 
ive  in  securing-  a  supply  of  good  water  to  the  city.  A 
daughter  of  John  Stevenson  married  Dudley  Walsh,  an 
eminent  merchant  during  the  latter  part  of  the  last  cent 
ury.  During  the  early  settlement  of  Western  New  York, 
then  called  the  Genesee  country,  he  advanced  to  the  land 
agent  (Williamson)  of  Sir  William  Pulteney  more  than 
£25,000,  and,  it  may  also  be  added,  had  considerable  dif 
ficulty  in  getting  his  money  back  from  that  eccentric, 
land-loving,  and  land-possessing  baronet.  Another 
daughter  of  John  Stevenson  married  Gen.  Pierre  Van 
Cortlandt,  a  patriot  of  the  American  Revolution  and  one 
of  nature's  noblemen." 

In  the  early  commercial  history  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  Scotsmen,  as  might  be  expected,  were  both  nu 
merous  and  influential.  We  have  already  in  the  course 
of  these  pages  mentioned  several,  and  the  Livingston 
family,  the  Golden  family,  the  Barclays,  the  Irvings,  were 
all  names  that  once  were  synonymous  with  the  commer 
cial  story  of  the  city.  President  William  Maxwell  of  the 
Bank  of  New  York,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  as  were 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       231 

several  other  of  the  founders  of  the  latter  institution. 
From  a  list  drawn  up  by  the  writer  some  years  ago  of 
the  leading-  Scotsmen  in  New  York  in  1789  the  following 
is  extracted: 

Hugh  Wallace  of  the  Scotch  firm  of  H.  &  A.  Wallace 
was  one  of  the  charter  members  of  the  Chamber  of  Com 
merce  and  its  Vice  President,  and  another  of  the  charter 
members  was  Thomas  Buchanan,  a  native  of  Stirling, 
who  used  jocosely  to  claim  that  he  was  descended  from 
the  immortal  scholar,  teacher,  poet,  historian,  and  philos 
opher,  George  Buchanan.  James_J3arclay  was  an  im-  I 
porter  at  14  HanoveT  Square,  ancHRobert  Affleck  carried''] 
on  business  at  60  William  Street.  Robert  Hodge,  an 
Edinburgh  man,  who  carried  on  business  as  a  bookseller 
and  printer  at  37  King  [Pine]  Street,  was  very  popular 
in  business  circles  and  commanded  a  large  trade.  In 
February,  1879,  ne  published  "  The  Power  of  Sym 
pathy,'1  the  earliest  American  novel.  Thomas  Allen, 
whose  place  of  business  was  at  16  Queen  Street,  was  the 
representative  of  a  number  of  British  publishers  and  the 
first  agent  in  America  for  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 
Samuel  Campbell,  whose  place  of  business  was  at  44 
Hanover  Square,  was  a  native  of  Kilbride.  He  reprinted 
Falconer's  "  Shipwreck "  and  many  other  standard 
Scotch  and  English  works.  Another  Scotch  bookseller 
was  Samuel  London  of  5  Water  Street,  and  the  first  New 
York  edition  of  Burns's  poems  was  published  in  1788  by 
J.  McLean.  The  Scots  in  the  early  part  of  the  century 
claimed  Cadwallader  D.  Colden — Mayor  in  1820 — as  one 
of  themselves,  although  he  was  born  in  America,  but  his 
Scotch  descent  through  his  grandfather,  Gov.  Colden, 
made  his  heart  warm  to  the  tartan.  Mayor  Colden  was 
as  patriotic  an  American  as  his  grandfather  was  loyal 
as  a  Briton,  and  during  the  three  years  he  sat  in  the 
Mayor's  chair  made  a  grand  record  for  honesty,  useful 
ness,  diligence,  and  administrative  ability.  He  greatly 
aided  De  Witt  Clinton  in  advocating  the  construction  of, 
and  in  the  work  of  building,  the  internal  waterways  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  and  was  an  ardent  supporter  of 
that  statesman's  entire  policy. 


232  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

An  interesting  sketch  might  be  written  of  the  career 
of  the  firm  of  Boorman,  Johnston  &  Co.,  which  for  a 
long  time  ranked  as  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  en 
terprising  houses  in  the  city.  Both  partners  landed  here 
from  Scotland  about  the  year  1800 — possibly  some  years 
earlier — without  a  penny  in  their  pockets,  but  with  plenty 
of  Scotch  sagacity  and  Scotch  grit  and  perseverance. 
After  a  year  or  two  they  got  on  so  well  that  they  started 
business  in  South  Street.  The  exact  date  of  the  com 
mencement  of  their  operations  is  not  known,  but  the 
War  of  1812  found  them  carrying  on  business,  and  ap 
parently  caused  them  no  loss.  They  mainly  imported 
and  sold  goods  from  Scotland,  their  principal  article  be 
ing  bagging  from  Dundee.  After  some  time  they  built 
up  a  great  Southern  trade,  and  most  of  the  tobacco  that 
came  to  this  city  from  Richmond,  Va.,  was  consigned  to 
them.  Next  they  added  the  iron  business,  and  had  many 
vessels  bringing  them  iron  from  Sweden  and  England. 
Their  premises  in  South  Street  became  too  small,  and 
they  removed  to  Greenwich  Street,  where  they  had  what 
was  then  considered  a  mammoth  establishment. 

In  1827  Mr.  Aclam  Norrie  came  out  from  Scotland  and 
was  admitted  a  partner  in  the  firm.  One  of  his  first  acts 
on  arriving  was  to  become  a  member  of  the  St.  Andrew's 
Society,  his  proposer  being  Mr.  John  Johnston,  the  jun 
ior  member  of  the  original  firm,  and  who  had  been  a 
member  since  1811.  Mr.  Nome's  connection  with  the 
society  was  a  long,  honorable,  and  useful  one,  as  he 
served  as  a  manager  in  1838  and  1839,  as  a  Vic?  Presi 
dent  from  1843  to  I85O,  and  as  President  from  1851  to 
1861.  Mr.  Norrie  quickly  made  his  mark  in  the  com 
munity.  One  who  knew  him  well  wrote:  "  New  York 
has  never  seen  a  more  energetic  and  intelligent  mer 
chant.  Scotch  to  the  backbone — that  is,  filled  with  ideas 
of  stern  honesty,  sagacity,  prudence,  and  determination, 
Mr.  Norrie  has  never  been  beat.  He  probably  was  re 
marked  for  those  great  mercantile  qualities  before  he 
left  Scotland,  for  with  them  he  also  brought  to  the  firm 
he  joined  a  splendid  connection  and  correspondence  in 
the  Old  Country,  and  greatly  added  to  the  business  of 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       233 

Boorman,  Johnston  &  Co."  Under  Mr.  Nome's  direc 
tion  the  firm  gained  immensely  in  strength,  and  many  of 
its  clerks  branched  out  into  business  for  themselves ;  and 
it  was  a  noticeable  feature  that  to  several  of  these  off 
shoots  the  parent  firm  gave  up  some  department  of  their 
business.  Thus  Wood,  Johnson  &  Burritt  got  their  dry- 
goods  trade,  Wilson  &  Brown  their  wine  importing  agen 
cies,  and  so  on.  These  young  firms  were  nearly  all  com 
posed  of  Scotsmen.  They  all  enjoyed  the  confidence 
and  good  will  of  their  old  employers,  and  most  of  them 
did  well  in  after  years. 

Another  famous  old  house  was  and  is  that  now  known 
as  Maitland,  Phelps  &  Co.,  but  which  in  its  early  years 
was  known  simply  as  Maitland  &  Co.  The  business  was 
commenced  before  the  Revolution  by  two  supercargoes 
in  Scottish  trading  ships.  The  Maitlands  were  from  the 
south  of  Scotland.  The  father  of  the  house,  as  it  exists 
to-day,  was  David  Maitland,  and  the  firm  name  when 
he  was  at  its  head  was  Maitland,  Kennedy  &  Maitland. 
The  office  was  in  Front  Street,  and  Mr.  Maitland,  being 
a  bachelor,  lived  in  rooms  which  he  had  fitted  up  with 
his  own  notions  of  comfort  in  the  same  building.  He 
was  a  good  type  of  the  old  Scotch  merchant,  enterpris 
ing  yet  cautious,  full  of  dogged  perseverance  and  indom 
itable  courage,  a  man  of  few  words,  set  in  his  ways, 
brusque  in  his  manner,  yet  with  a  kindly  heart  and  a 
desire  to  see  every  one  get  along  in  the  world.  When 
the  opportunity  came  he  gave  up  active  business  and  re 
tired  to  some  property  he  had  in  Scotland,  where  he 
lived  very  happily.  The  business  in  New  York  was  left 
to  his  nephew,  Stewart  Maitland,  and  he  formed  a  part 
nership  with  Mr.  Royal  Phelps,  a  gentleman  who  had 
amassed  a  fortune  in  South  America,  and  the  firm  be 
came  Maitland,  Phelps  &  Co.  On  Stewart  Maitland  re 
tiring  his  place  was  taken  by  James  William  Maitland, 
who  at  his  death  bequeathed  handsome  legacies  to  the 
poor  in  the  parishes  in  Scotland  with  which  the  family 
had  been  connected.  The  history  of  this  firm,  if  fully 
told,  would  fill  an  ample  volume,  and  would  be  interest 
ing  reading,  so  wide  were  its  ramifications  and  so  clearly 


234  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

were  its  successes  the  result  of  sagacity  and  hard  work. 
The  business  still  ranks  among  the  most  respected  in 
New  York,  although  none  of  the  Maitland  family  is  con 
nected  with  it. 

Another  old  firm  which  is  still  represented  in  the  busi 
ness  houses  of  the  city,  although  the  name  is  changed,  is 
Barclay  &  Livingstone.  The  original  firm  was  Henry 
&  George  Barclay,  and  the  partners  were  the  sons  of 
Thomas  Barclay,  who  was  the  first  British  Consul  in  this 
city.  Another  son,  Anthony,  who  went  in  early  life  to 
Georgia  to  seek  his  fortune,  succeeded  so  well  in  the 
South — after  becoming  a  Colonel  and  marrying  the 
wealthy  widow  of  a  Scotsman  named  Glen — that  when  he 
returned  to  New  York  he  was  made  a  partner.  He  lived 
in  a  fine  house  on  Dey  Street,  near  Greenwich  Street, 
was  the  aristocrat  of  the  family,  and  became  British  Con 
sul,  like  his  father.  The  Barclays  of  the  firm  all  prided 
themselves  on  being  British  subjects.  They  were  al\ 
born  here,  but  their  father  being  Consul,  they  claimed 
that  his  house  was  British  territory. 

Few  are  now  living  who  remember  the  importing  firm 
of  Gillespie  &  McLeod,  which  flourished  between  1825 
and  1835.  Both  partners  were  Scotch,  but  William  Mc 
Leod  was  particularly  enthusiastic  about  his  native  land. 
His  early  life  was  full  of  promise.  He  was  descended 
from  an  old  Highland  family,  and  inherited  considerable 
wealth  through  his  father,  an  officer  in  the  British  Army, 
who  was  killed  at  Waterloo.  McLeod  once  held  a  com 
mission  in  the  army  himself,  but  for  some  reason  he  sold 
out  when  his  regiment  was  in  Canada,  and  settled  in 
New  York  to  enter  on  a  commercial  career.  For  some 
years  the  firm  did  a  large  business,  for  Gillespie,  the  sen 
ior  partner,  was  a  hard-working  and  thorough  business 
man,  which  McLeod  certainly  was  not.  He  was  a  gen 
erous,  warm-hearted  fellow,  proud  of  his  birth  and  his 
Highland  ancestry,  careless  of  money,  and  utterly  im 
provident.  He  aimed  at  being  a  fashionable  leader  rather 
than  a  merchant,  and  in  this  aim  he  certainly  succeeded. 
For  years  he  was  one  of  the  most  popular  society  men 
about  town,  and  had  as  large  and  varied  a  circle  of 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       235 

friends  as  any  one  in  it,  while  everybody  knew  him  by 
sight.  He  was  an  arbitrator  in  society  quarrels,  and 
was  equally  ready  to  act  as  a  peacemaker  as  to  be  a  sec 
ond  in  a  duel.  He  made  one  great  mistake  in  his  life, 
and  that  was  when  he  quitted  the  army  for  commerce. 
For  the  latter  he  was  in  no  way  suited,  and,  though  he 
appeared  to  flourish  for  a  time,  his  brother  merchants 
shook  their  heads  when  asked  about  the  prospects  of 
the  firm,  and  were  very  cautious  in  their  dealings  with 
it.  Gradually  the  business  grew  smaller  and  smaller, 
until  one  or  two  wild  plunges,  made  in  the  hope  of  im 
proving  matters,  ended  in  bankruptcy  and  ruin.  Mr. 
McLeod  took  his  misfortune  with  remarkable  compos 
ure.  Although  he  lost  his  position  in  fashionable  so 
ciety,  and  found  in  his  later  days  that  his  real  friends 
wrere  few,  he  never  murmured.  He  continued  to  live  in 
New  York,  and  died  at  a  good  old  age  in  the  old  City 
Hotel,  which  had  for  years  been  one  of  his  favorite 
haunts. 

The  most  noted,  however,  of  the  early  mercantile  fam 
ilies  of  the  City  of  New  York  was  that  founded  by  Rob 
ert  Lenox,  a  native  of  Kirkcudbright,  and  belonging  to 
a  family  which  had  long  been  famous  in  the  ancient 
Stewartry.  One  Robert  Lenox  was  shot  in  1685  by  the 
notorious  Grierson  of  Lagg,  the  infamous  persecutor  of 
the  Covenanters,  of  whom  no  man  has  ever  yet  spoken  a 
favorable  word,  although  Claverhouse  and  others  have 
had  their  defenders.  Robert  Lenox  was  a  Covenanter, 
and  "  suffered  "  like  so  many  hundred  others  for  his  ad 
herence  to  that  noble  cause.  Whether  Robert  Lenox, 
who  crossed  the  Atlantic  about  1778,  \vas  a  descendant 
from  the  same  family  as  this  martyr  or  not  we  cannot 
say,  but  he  and  his  son  certainly  showed  a  devotion  to 
the  cause  of  religion  that  almost  tempts  one  to  conclude 
that  the  same  blood  flowed  through  their  views.  Robert 
Lenox  seems  to  have  settled  first  in  Philadelphia,  but 
after  a  year  or  two  removed  to  New  York.  He  started 
in  business  as  a  general  shipping  merchant  at  235  Queen 
Street,  and  rapidly,  for  those  days,  rose  to  a  foremost 
position  among  New  York's  merchants.  He  married  a 


236  THE    SCOT   ilsr   AMERICA. 

daughter  of  Nicholas  Carmer,  a  representative  of  an  old 
Knickerbocker  family,  and  so  got  a  recognized  place 
among  the  local  aristocracy,  while  his  own  countrymen 
admired  his  executive  ability  and  mercantile  standing  so 
highly  that  in  1792  they  elected  him  a  Vice  President  oi 
the  St.  Andrew's  Society,  and  its  President  from  1798  till 
1813.  Of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  he  was  also  Presi 
dent  for  many  years. 

While  Robert  Lenox's  entire  career  as  a  merchant  is 
interesting,  its  most  noteworthy  incident  was  his  pur 
chase  of  the  five-milestone  farm  of  about  thirty  acres 
from  the  Corporation  of  New  York  City.  The  purchase 
money  paid  was,  comparatively,  a  trifle,  and  as  the  farm 
lay  between  what  is  now  Fourth  and  Fifth  Avenues  and 
Sixty-eighth  and  Seventy-fourth  Streets,  every  New 
Yorker  knows  that  this  land  is  now  among  the  most 
valuable  in  the  city.  Mr.  Lenox  was  firmly  convinced 
that  this  land  would  "  improve  "  in  value,  and  steadily 
added  to  its  extent  as  opportunity  offered,  and  in  draw 
ing  up  his  will  he  bequeathed  it  in  such  a  way  that  its 
sale  for  many  years  was  effectually  prevented.  When  he 
died,  in  1840,  Mr.  Lenox  was  reputed  to  be  among  the 
five  wealthiest  citizens  of  New  York.  His  only  son, 
James,  who  was  born  at  59  Broadway,  New  York,  in 
1800,  succeeded  to  his  entire  estate.  James  Lenox  was 
educated  at  Princeton,  where  he  was  graduated  in  1821. 
He  studied  law,  but  practiced  little,  if  any,  and  went  to 
Europe  soon  after  his  admission  to  the  bar.  While  there 
he  developed  his  bibliographical  and  artistic  tastes  and 
laid  the  foundation  for  his  future  benefaction  to  his  na 
tive  city  of  a  public  library.  On  his  return  he  carefully 
attended  to  his  property,  which  year  by  year  increased  in 
value,  but  at  the  same  time  he  was  actively  engaged  in 
thinking  out  those  schemes  of  public  benefit  with  which 
his  name  is  now  associated.  He  was  a  man  of  retiring 
disposition,  very  sensitive  as  to  public  notice,  and,  while 
he  was  constantly  engaged  in  doing  good,  it  was  in  such 
an  unostentatious  manner  that  often  the  recipients  of  the 
bounty  were  unaware  of  its  source.  His  first  great  bene 
faction  was  the  site  and  $250,000  toward  the  construction 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       23? 

and  equipment  of  the  Presbyterian  Hospital,  which  was 
opened  Oct.  10,  1872.  Then  he  gave  the  ground  on  Sev 
enty-third  Street,  valued  at  that  time  at  $64,000,  for  the 
Presbyterian  Home  for  Aged  Women,  and  in  1874  the 
site  for  a  Presbyterian  church  on  Seventy-third  Street. 

The  other  gifts  Mr.  Lenox  gave  to  these  institutions 
will  probably  never  be  fully  known,  but  during  his  life 
time  none  of  them  suffered  for  lack  of  funds.  In  1870  he 
conveyed  ten  lots  on  the  crest  of  a  hill  overlooking  Cen 
tral  Park  for  the  erection  of  the  Lenox  Library,  and 
built  the  structure  which  adorns  that  site  and  to  which 
he  gave  his  family  name.  To  it,  when  completed,  he  pre 
sented  his  magnificent  collection  of  books  and  pictures, 
and  augmented  since,  as  it  has  been,  by  the  funds  be 
queathed  by  him  and  by  other  donations,  notably  that 
from  the  Stuart  estate,  it  is  become  one  of  the  choicest 
of  the  public  libraries  in  America,  although  its  individ 
uality  has  been  in  a  measure  lost  since  becoming  a  part 
of  the  "  New  York  Public  Library — Astor,  Lenox,  and 
Tilden  Foundations.-'  It  does  not  aim  at  comprehensive 
ness,  but  whatever  branch  of  literature  it  takes  up  it 
tries  to  illustrate  completely.  Thus,  of  Bibles  it  has  the 
finest  collection  in  the  country,  from  the  rare  "  Maza- 
rin  "  of  Gutenberg  and  Faust,  about  1450,  to  the  Oxford 
Bibles  of  the  present  age.  There  is  a  set  of  Shakespeare 
folios  and  quartos,  seven  Caxtons,  and  nearly  every 
known  edition  of  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  Wal 
ton's  "  Angler,"  and  Milton's  works.  The  Americana  is 
particularly  large  and  valuable,  and  the  collection  of 
manuscripts  is  especially  noticeable.  The  art  collection 
is  small,  but  includes  a  number  of  Washington  portraits, 
and  examples  of  Reynolds,  Turner,  Gainsborough,  Wil- 
kie,  Stuart,  Leslie,  Delaroche,  and  other  modern  artists. 
The  most  conspicuous  picture  in  the  collection  is  Mun- 
kacsy's  "  Blind  Milton  Dictating  '  Paradise  Lost '  to  His 
Daughters,"  the  gift  of  Robert  Lenox  Kennedy,  who 
succeeded  Mr.  Lenox  as  President  of  the  library,  and 
who,  like  the  present  President,  John  S.  Kennedy,  was 
ever  on  the  outlook  to  advance  the  importance  of  the 
institution  by  gift  or  executive  ability.  Mr.  Lenox  died 


238  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

in  1880.  Of  his  seven  sisters,  only  two  survived  him,  and 
the  bulk  of  his  property  was  distributed  so  as  to  reach 
these,  and  ultimately  his  numerous  benefactions.  Of  one 
thing  he  was  very  imperative  in  the  terms  of  his  will,  and 
that  was  that  no  details  of  his  life  should  be  given  for 
publication  in  any  form.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate 
what  New  York — the  poor  of  New  York — owe  to  the 
deeds  of  this  family,  but  when  we  remember  that  thou 
sands  each  year  pass  through  the  Presbyterian  Hospital 
either  as  indoor  or  dispensary  patients,  we  can  under 
stand  slightly  the  good  work  that  is  being  carried  on  by 
one  agency  established  through  the  foresight  of  the 
father  and  the  benevolence  of  the  son.  In  this  instance, 
too,  the  educated  are  equally  benefited  by  the  family 
benefactions,  for  the  scholar  and  man  of  letters  has  in 
the  Lenox  Library  access  to  literary  treasures  so  rare 
and  so  valuable  as  to  be  nowadays  beyond  the  reach  of 
purchase.  Surely  among  the  things  which  make  up  the 
great  metropolitan  city  of  America  these  institutions 
will  ever  deserve  a  prominent  place  and  the  name  of 
Lenox  be  reverently  cherished,  not  only  as  that  of  a 
family  of  representative  Scots,  but  of  men  who  strove  to 
do  the  utmost  good  to  the  city  which  had  become  their 
home. 

Equal  prominence  as  public  benefactors  is  due  to  the 
Stuart  family,  which  may  be  said  to  have  been  founded 
in  America 'in  1805,  when  Kinloch  Stuart  settled  in 
New  York  from  Edinburgh  and  started  in  business  as  a 
candymaker.  He  attended  closely  to  his  establishment, 
and  when  he  died,  in  1826,  had  not  only  acquired  consid 
erable  means,  but  was  regarded  as  a  substantial  mer 
chant,  two  reputations  which  do  not  always  go  together. 
His  sons,  Robert  L.  and  Alexander  Stuart,  both  of 
whom  were  born  in  New  York,  succeeded  him  and  car 
ried  on  the  business  until  1856,  during  which  time  the 
confections  of  R.  L.  &  A.  Stuart  became  famous  all  over 
the  country.  In  that  year  they  gave  up  candymaking 
and  devoted  themselves  to  refining  sugar — they  were  the 
first,  by  the  way,  to  use  steam  in  the  process  in  America 
— and  finally  retired  from  business  life  in  1872  with  large 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       239 

fortunes.  The  rest  of  their  lives  were  truly  spent  in  do 
ing  good,  although  the  performance  of  charity  was  no 
new  hobby  with  them,  for  from  1852  they  had  each  laid 
aside  yearly  a  stated  amount  of  their  income  for  works  of 
benevolence  or  religion.  Alexander  died  in  1879  an<^ 
Robert  L.  in  1882,  and  it  has  been  estimated  that  joint 
ly  they  gave  away  during  their  lives  over  $2,000,000. 
Princeton  College  and  Theological  Seminary  were  lib 
eral  partakers  of  this  bounty,  and  the  New  York  Presby 
terian  Hospital  and  the  San  Francisco  Theological  Sem 
inary  were  enriched  by  munificent  gifts.  R.  L.  Stuart 
was  long  President  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  and  the  early  growth  of  that  institution  was 
greatly  facilitated  by  his  generosity,  and  as  President  for 
a  time  of  the  Presbyterian  Hospital  he  did  good  service 
— service  only  second  to  that  of  the  founder  himself — to 
the  poor  of  New  York.  No  one,  however,  knew  exactly 
how  far  the  charitable  hands  of  these  brothers  were  ex 
tended  or  how  many  churches,  missions,  and  agencies  of 
good,  not  only  in  America,  but  throughout  the  world, 
were  helped  by  them. 

After  R.  L.  Stuart's  death  the  philanthropic  work  of 
his  life  was  nobly  carried  on  by  his  widow,  who  hence 
forth  lived  to  be  virtually  the  almoner  of  her  own  and  her 
husband's  wealth.  This  estimable  lady  was  the  daughter 
of  Robert  McCrea,  a  wealthy  Scotch  merchant  of  New 
York,  who  died  in  1830.  The  Presbyterian  Church  in  its 
various  schemes  was  the  recipient  of  large  contributions 
annually,  and  special  occasions  were  always  certain  of 
her  assistance.  To  Princeton  College  she  was  a  princely 
benefactor,  founding  in  it,  at  Dr.McCosh's  special  request, 
a  School  of  Philosophy  with  a  gift  of  $150,000,  and  that 
was  only  one  of  many  contributions  to  the  institution. 
To  the  Historical  Society  she  gave  $100,000,  to  the  Half 
Orphan  Asylum  $100,000,  and  so  on — always  generous 
in  her  contributions.  She  was  invariably  giving— and 
giving  in  secret,  for  she  shunned  notoriety  or  publicity, 
and  hardly  a  day  passed  that  she  was  not  assisting-  in 
some  good  work.  When  she  died,  at  the  close  of  1891, 
most  of  her  means,  v.ient  to  Princeton,  to  the  various 


240  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Presbyterian  Church  schemes,  and  to  a  host  of  charities, 
for  she  had  no  near  relatives.  Her  books  and  collection 
of  paintings  went  to  the  Lenox  Library,  and  those  who 
perused  her  will  saw  that  in  the  final  distribution  of  her 
wealth  she  aimed  to  be  as  comprehensive  in  its  disposi 
tion  as  possible,  to  aid  established  and  tried  agencies,  and 
to  spread  the  light  of  the  Gospel  as  well  as  the  blessings 
of  education  and  charity.  She  used  common  sense 
throughout  her  life  in  her  giving,  and  this  good  Scotch 
quality  was  never  more  apparent  than  in  the  instrument 
which  contained  her  instructions  for  the  disposal  of  her 
"  guids  and  gear/' 

In  the  "  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,'1  Vol.  I.,  Page 
495,  is  the  following  brief  notice  of  a  Scot  whose  name 
was  once  well  known  all  over  the  Eastern  States  and  is 
still  prominently  remembered  in  horticultural  circles: 
"  Mr.  Grant  Thorburn,  seedsman,  New  York,  the  original 
'  Lawrie  Todd,'  though  a  native  of  Newbattle  Parish, 
where  he  was  born  on  the  i8th  of  February,  1773,  lived 
in  Dalkeith  from  his  childhood  till  he  sailed  for  New 
York  on  the  I3th  April,  1794.  He  is  a  man  of  great 
piety  and  worth,  though  of  a  remarkably  lively  and  ec 
centric  character.  He  visited  Dalkeith  in  1834,  when  he 
published  his  '  Autobiography,'  which  he  dedicates  with 
characteristic  singularity  and  elegance  to  Her  Grace  the 
Duchess  of  Buccleuch." 

It  did  not  suit  the  purpose  for  Mr.  Peter  Steele,  the 
gifted  schoolmaster  who  in  1844  wrote  these  words,  to 
give  any  indication  of  Thorburn's  career  in  Scotland. 
Political  feeling  then  ran  very  high  and  political  resent 
ment  was  very  bitter,  and  the  teacher  could  not,  had  he 
so  inclined,  say  a  word  commendatory  of  Thorbunvs 
early  life  without  bringing  upon  his  own  head  the  ill  will 
of  the  Buccleuch  family  and  its  adherents.  So,  like  a 
canny  Scot,  he  acted  the  part  of  the  Aberdeen  man's 
parrot,  which  "  thocht  a  guid  deal  but  said  naething  ava." 
Thorburn  learned  from  his  father  the  trade  of  a  nail- 
maker  and  became  quite  an  expert  at  it  long  before  his 
apprenticeship  was  past.  Like  most  of  the  Scottish 
workmen  of  the  time — a  time  when  the  old  order  of 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       241 

things  was  fast  changing  and  the  governing  powers  tried 
to  quell  the  popular  advance  and  the  political  aspirations 
with  trials  for  treason,  sedition,  and  the  like — Thorburn 
became  deeply  interested  in  politics,  and  in  Dalkeith  was 
prominent  among  those  who  advocated  Parliamentary 
reform  and  a  generous  accession  to  the  rights  of  the  peo 
ple  to  a  voice  in  the  conduct  of  affairs.  The  result  was 
that  when  opportunity  offered  he  was  arrested  for  trea 
son,  and,  after  a  short  time  in  prison,  was  released  on* 
bail.  This  arrest  made  him  a  marked  man  and  blocked 
any  prospect  of  his  making  his  way  in  the  world,  so,  be 
lieving  that  the  star  of  freedom  blinked  bonnily  across 
the  sea  in  the  new  Republic  which  had  thrown  off  the 
yoke  of  the  same  Parliament  he  had  protested  against, 
Thorburn  left  Scotland  and,  settling  in  New  York,  tried 
to  earn  his  living  at  his  trade  of  nailmaking.  It,  how 
ever,  did  not  promise  much  for  the  future,  and  in  1801 
he  started  in  business  as  a  grocer  at  20  Nassau -Street. 
"  He  was  there,"  writes  Walter  Barrett,  "  some  ten  or 
twelve  years  and  then  he  moved  to  No.  22,  and  about  the 
time  of  his  removal,  in  1810,  he  changed  his  business 
and  kept  garden  seeds  and  was  a  florist.  He  established 
a  seed-raising  garden  at  Newark,  but  it  proved  unsuc 
cessful,  and  thereafter  he  confined  his  attention  to  his 
business  in  New  York  and  acquired  considerable  means." 
From  the  beginning  of  his  American  career  almost, 
Thorburn  became  known  for  his  kindly  heart,  and  he  did 
much  practical  good  in  a  quiet  way,  not  only  among  his 
countrymen,  but  among  all  deserving  people  whose  needs 
touched  his  sympathy  or  aroused  his  compassion.  For 
many  years  his  store  in  Liberty  Street  was  not  only  a 
lounging  place  for  the  merchants  who  bought  flowers, 
but  for  the  practical  gardeners  who  grew  them.  His 
place  became  a  sort  of  clearing  house  for  the  horticultur 
ists  in  the  city,  and  every  Scotch  gardener  who  arrived  in 
New  York  from  the  Old  Country  made  Thorburn's  place 
his  headquarters  until  he  found  employment,  and  hun 
dreds  used  to  say  that  the  advice  and  information  they  re 
ceived  from  him  at  that  critical  stage  in  their  careers  were 
of  the  most  incalculable  value  to  them  through  life.  In 


242  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

1854  Mr.  Thorburn  in  a  sense  retired  from  business  and 
settled  in  Astoria.  From  there  he  moved  to  Winsted, 
Conn.,  and  finally  to  New  Haven,  Ccain.,  where  he  died 
in  1861. 

Mr.  Thorburn  possessed  considerable  literary  tastes, 
and,  under  the  nom  dc  plume  of  "  Lawrie  Todd,"  wrote  in 
his  later  years  at  frequent  intervals  for  the  "  Knicker 
bocker  Magazine  "  and  other  periodicals.  He  gave  to 
John  Gait  much  of  the  information  which  that  genius 
incorporated  in  his  story  of  "  Lawrie  Todd;  or,  Settlers 
in  the  New  World,"  and  his  published  volumes  of  remi 
niscences,  notably  his  "  Forty  Years'  Residence  in  Amer 
ica  "  and  "  Fifty  Years'  Reminiscences  of  New  York," 
still  form  interesting  reading.  So,  too,  does  a  now  scarce 
volume  published  in  1848  under  the  title  of  "  Lawrie 
Todd's  Notes  on  Virginia,  with  a  Chapter  on  Puritans, 
Witches,  and  Friends."  This  book  is  one  of  those  con 
tributions  to  American  social  history  which  will  become 
of  more  value  as  time  speeds  on,  although  its  importance 
may  be  more  appreciated  by  the  student  than  by  the  gen 
eral  reader. 

In  Walter  Barrett's  interesting  volumes  on  "  The  Old 
Merchants  of  New  York  "  we  find  the  following  notices 
of  an  old  family  of  merchants,  the  founders  of  which  set 
tled  in  America  from  Inverary.  Says  Mr.  Barrett: 
k"  Robert  Bruce  came  out  to  Norfolk  as  a  protege  of  the 
Earl  of  Dunmore,  who  was  then  Governor  of  Virginia. 
The  Governor  was  about  to  visit  the  Province  of  New 
York  in  an  English  man-of-war.  '  Robert,  I  want  you 
to  accompany  me  to  New  York;  Norfolk  is  too  small  a 
sphere  for  your  mercantile  operations.  New  York  will 
be  the  great  commercial  city.  You  must  anchor  there,' 
were  the  kind  words  of  Lord  Dunmore  to  Robert  Bruce. 
Accordingly,  the  young  Scotch  merchant  ac 
companied  Gov.  Dunmore  to  New  York.  Here  he  in 
troduced  him  to  Gov.  Golden,  who  became  his  friend 
and  patron  ever  after. 

"  When  Robert  had  been  in  the  city  a  few  months  he 
determined  to  make  it  his  permanent  home,  and  sent  for 
his  brother,  Peter,  to  come  over  from  Scotland.  At  that 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        243 

time  Broadway  did  not  extend  up  to  where  Chambers 
Street  now  is,  though  Peter  Bruce  bought  a  spot  of 
ground  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Broadway  and  Duane 
Street.  The  brothers  were  in  this  city  prior  to  the  Revo 
lution,  probably  about  1/68.  Robert  was  a  Tory  and 
Peter  a  Whig  in  the  war  times.  It  is  a  wonder  to  me 
how  a  merchant  of  that  day  could  be  anything  else  than 
a  Tory — particularly  in  the  case  of  Robert  Bruce,  who 
had  been  the  protege  and  had  received  the  warm  per 
sonal  friendship  of  two  royal  Governors.  Probably  it 
was  a  little  bit  of  policy  that  made  Peter  a  Whig.  After 
the  war  was  over  they  kept  their  store,  in  1784,  at  3 
Front  Street,  and  as  late  as  1795,  when  they  removed  to 
120  Front  Street.  There  was  a  William  Bruce  who  was 
in  the  grocery  business  at  129  Front  Street.  He  was 
from  Aberdeen.  He  died  in  1798  of  yellow  fever. 

"  Both  Robert  and  Peter  died  in  1796  within  a  short 
time  of  each  other.  In  1789  the  firm  of  Robert  &  Peter 
Bruce  owned  a  little  vessel  called  The  Friends'  Advent 
ure.  She  was  commanded  by  Peter  Parker,  and  traded 
to  Shelburne.  At  the  time  John  Jacob  Astor  arrived  in 
New  York  from  Germany  he  found  Robert  Bruce  the 
richest  man  in  the  city,  as  Mr.  Astor  frequently  stated." 
From  these  brothers  descended  a  family  whose  repre 
sentatives  are  now  to  be  found  in  the  highest  circles  of 
the  representative  houses,  not  only  of  New  York,  but  in 
Virginia  and  other  States. 

Another  family  of  Bruces  crossed  the  Atlantic  about 
the  time  these  Inverary  merchants  were  passing  off  the 
stage.  The  first  of  this  family  to  settle  in  America  was 
David  Bruce,  a  native  of  Edinburgh,  who  landed  in  New 
York  about  1793.  His  brother,  George,  followed  him 
m  :795-  After  being  employed  in  several  establish 
ments,  the  two  brothers,  in  1806,  opened  a  book  store 
and  printing  office  on  Pearl  Street.  They  scon  had  a 
fair  business,  but  their  success  really  dated' from  the  day 
they  published  an  edition  of  Lavoisier's  "  Chemistry,"  all 
the  work  in  connection  with  the  printing  of  which  they 
did  themselves.  In  1812  David  revisited  Scotland  in 
search  of  matters  that  might  extend  their  business,  and 


244  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

when  in  Edinburgh  mastered  the  art  of  stereotyping — 
an  Edinburgh  invention — and  on  his  return  proceeded 
to  turn  his  knowledge  to  practical  account.  This  led  to 
the  making  of  improvements  in  typesetting,  and  finally 
to  the  establishment  of  a  type  foundry,  which  at  the 
present  day  ranks  as  one  of  the  foremost  in  the  United 
States.  Their  first  stereotyped  work — the  first  in  Amer 
ica — was  an  edition  of  the  New  Testament  in  bourgeois 
type,  and  this  wTas  followed  by  an  edition  of  the  entire 
Bible  in  nonpareil.  After  a  most  successful  career,  Da 
vid  Bruce  died  in  Brooklyn  in  1857,  and  George  sur 
vived  till  1866,  having  done  more  to  make  American 
type  famous  for  beauty  of  outline  and  strength  of  mate 
rial  throughout  the  world  than  any  of  their  contempora 
ries. 

Philadelphia  furnishes  us  with  the  names  of  several 
even  earlier  Scotch  printers,  and  it  is  worthy  of  mention 
here  that  the  first  American  edition  of  Burns's  poems 
was  published  in  the  Quaker  City  in  1788 — a  year  after 
the  first  Edinburgh  edition  and  a  few  months  before  the 
first  New  York  edition — by  Stewart  &  Hyde.  One  of 
the  most  noted  of  the  Scotch  printers  and  publishers  in 
Philadelphia  was  Robert  Aitken,  a  native  of  Perthshire. 
He  was  born  in  1724,  and,  although  nothing  can  be 
learned  of  his  early  life,  he  appears  to  have  been  a  man 
of  considerable  education  and  mental  capacity,  and  thor 
oughly  imbued  with  republican  principles.  We  first  find 
him  in  Philadelphia  in  1769  engaged  as  a  printer  and 
active  in  the  then  undefined  movement  which  within  a 
few  years  was  to  burct  aside  the  bonds  which  united  the 
Colonies  to  the  old  land.  In  1775  he  published  the 
"Pennsylvania  Magazine;  or,  American  Monthly,"  but 
the  times  were  not  propitious  for  the  success  of  maga 
zine  literature,  and  after  issuing  it  for  eighteen  months, 
during  which  it  contained  many  attractive  and  timely 
articles — some  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Witherspoon  of 
Princeton — he  reluctantly  abandoned  it.  A  year  later 
his  enthusiasm  for  the  cause  of  the  young  republic  land 
ed  him  in  prison.  In  1782 — a  most  ill-advised  time  for 
such  a  project — he  printed  the  first  American  edition  of 


MERCHANTS    'AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        245 

the  English  Bible,  and  lost  money -by  the  speculation. 
Its  title  page  bears  the  imprint,  "  Philadelphia,  Printed 
and  Sold  by  R.  Aitkin,  at  Pope's  Head,  Three  doors 
above  the  Coffee  House,  in  Market  Street, 
MDCCLXXXIL,"  and  it  has  become  a  very  scarce 
book.  It  is  doubted  if  there  are  fifty  copies  in  existence, 
and  the  value  of  a  perfect  one  is  very  great.  Aitkin  was 
the  author,  or  the  reputed  author,  of  a  work  on  a  com 
mercial  system  for  the  United  States,  which  was  pub 
lished  in  1787,  and  of  a  number  of  pamphlets.  He  died 
in  1802,  in  the  city  which  had  so  long  been  his  home. 

Another  noted  Philadelphia  printer  was  David  Hall, 
whose  firm — Hall  &  Seller — printed  the  paper  money 
issued  by  authority  of  Congress  during  the  Revolution. 
Hall  was  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1714,  and  thoroughly 
mastered  what  is  called  "  the  printer's  art  "  in  his  native 
city  and  in  London,  to  which  place  he  removed  shortly 
after  his  apprenticeship  was  over.  He  settled  in  Phila 
delphia  in  1747,  and  after  working  at  his  trade  for  sev 
eral  years  started  in  business.  Iror  a  time  he  had  the  fa 
mous  Benjamin  Franklin  as  a  partner,  but  that  great 
patriot  had  then  fully  entered  upon  that  public  career 
which  was  to  redound  so  nobly  to  his  own  fame  and  to 
the  welfare  and  stability  of  the  Nation  he  did  so  much  to 
found,  and  so  his  partnership  was  of  little  practical  use 
in  the  business,  and  the  relations  between  Hall  and 
Franklin  were  soon  dissolved.  In  1766  he  formed  the 
copartnership  of  Hall  &  Seller,  a  firm  that  continued  in 
existence  long  after  he  had  passed  away,  his  own  interest 
being  taken  up  by  his  sons.  The  firm  printed  the 
"  Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  and  the  editorial  work  was 
done  by  Hall.  It  was  a  model  of  its  kind,  and  typo 
graphically  and  editorially  the  publication  was  ahead  of 
any  of  its  contemporaries.  Hall  also  conducted  on  his 
individual  account  quite  an  extensive  book  and  station 
ery  store,  so  that  he  must  have  been  a  pattern  of  indus 
try — just  the  sort  of  man  whose  life  ought  to  have  been 
written  by  Dr.  Smiles  or  included  in  that  author's  "  Self 
Help."  His  death  took  place  at  Philadelphia,  in  1772, 
just  as  the  struggle  was  fairly  opening-  that  was  to  culmi- 


246  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

nate  in  the  political  independence  of  the  land  he  had 
made  his  own,  and  whose  cause  had  no  warmer  sup 
porter. 

Possibly  the  pioneer  Scotch  printer  in  America  was 
John  Campbell  of  Boston,  who  published  on  April  17, 
1704,  the  Boston  "  News-Letter,"  the  first  regular  news 
paper  issued  in  the  country.  It  was  a  small  production 
looked  at  alongside  of  the  mammoth  "  blanket  "  news 
papers  of  the  present  day,  but,  small  as  it  was,  its  publi 
cation  involved  an  amount  of  thought  and  care  and 
enterprise  which  stamps  John  Campbell  as  having  been 
no  ordinary  man.  Campbell  was  born  at  Islay  in  1653, 
crossed  the  Atlantic  in  1686,  and  became  a  bookseller 
in  Boston.  For  many  years  he  was  Postmaster  of  that 
city,  and  seems  to  have  been  held  in  general  esteem.  He 
died  in  1728. 

Another  enterprising  newspaper  was  published  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  troubles  by  Robert 
Wells,  an  Edinburgh  man  who,  in  1754,  when  in  the 
twenty-sixth  year  of  his  age,  settled  down  in  Charleston 
to  make  a  fortune.  One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  get  en 
rolled  as  a  member  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society  of 
Charleston,  so  that  his  own  land  and  its  associations 
1  -ere  not  to  be  forgotten,  although  he  had  "  crossed  the 
eea."  Wells  commenced  business  as  a  bookseller,  sta 
tioner,  and  printer,  and  for  many  years  his  establish 
ment  was  the  leading  literary  emporium  in  the  Carolinas. 
His  paper,  "  The  South  Carolina  and  American  General 
Gazette,"  enjoyed  a  large  circulation — as  circulations 
went  in  those  days.  When  the  Revolutionary  move 
ment  approached  a  crisis  he  declined  to  throw  off  his 
allegiance  to  the  Crown,  and,  resigning  his  business  to 
his  son,  John,  who  had  no  such  scruples,  Wells  returned 
to  Britain  and  died  at  London,  in  1794.  While  in 
Charleston  he  wrote  for  his  amusement  a  "  Travestie  of 
Virgil,"  and  he  seems  to  have  been  a  person  of  consid 
erable  attainments,  a  self-educated  and  self-made  man. 

As  we  have  lingered  so  long  among  printers  and  book 
sellers,  we  may  be  pardoned  for  continuing  here  to  write 
of  them  down  to  a  period  beyond  that  intended  to  be 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       247 

covered  at  this  stage  of  this  chapter.  Having  dwelt  on 
the  beginning  of  the  business  of  typography,  we  may  as 
well  go  on  to  see  its  highest  development.  This  was 
brought  about,  it  may  be  said,  through  the  life-long 
labors  and  learned  as  well  as  artistic  zeal  of  John  Wil 
son,  the  founder  of  the  still-famed  Wilson  Press  of 
Cambridge.  John  Wilson  was  born  at  Glasgow  in  1802. 
His  parents  were  of  humble  position,  his  early  education 
scant,  and  early  in  life  necessity  compelled  him  to  adopt 
a  trade,  and  by  accident  or  from  inclination  he  became  a 
printer.  Nothing  shows  the  character  of  the  lad  better 
than  the  fact  that  despite  his  "  short  schooling  "  and  the 
long  hours  which  his  occupation  demanded,  he  devel 
oped  into  a  man  of  very  considerable  learning  and  an 
adept  in  Greek,  Latin,  '  French,  and  other  languages. 
Leaving  Scotland  about  1824,  he  went  to  Belfast,  and 
there  showed  that  he  thought  of  more  than  the  mere 
mechanism  of  his  business  by  publishing  in  1826  a  small 
"  Treatise  on  Grammatical  Punctuation,"  a  work  which 
was  afterward  (in  1850)  rewritten  and  republished  in 
Boston,  and  which  has  since  been  accepted  as  the  stand 
ard  work  on  the  subject,  so  much  so  that  over  twenty 
editions  have  been  published  since  the  author's  death. 

In  1846,  after  many  other  migrations,  Wilson  settled 
in  Boston  and  began  business  for  himself  at  his  trade. 
Moving  from  the  city  subsequently  to  its  suburb  of  Cam 
bridge,  he  founded  the  firm  of  John  Wilson  &  Son  and 
did  a  large  business — a  business  of  that  high  class  that 
brought  into  constant  practical  service  his  lingual  ac 
quirements.  A  great  deal  of  his  business  lay  with 
Harvard  University  and  with  the  writings  of  its  pro 
fessors  and  instructors,  and  this  connection  gained  for 
him,  in  1866,  the  well-merited  official  acknowledgment 
of  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts.  In  his  religious  belief 
Mr.  Wilson  was  a  stanch  Unitarian,  and  wrote  several 
volumes  and  pamphlets  in  defense  of  the  principles  of 
that  body — of  the  school,  rather,  of  which  the  gifted 
Channing  was  the  leader. 

Mr.  Wilson  was  constantly  engaged  in  perfecting  the 
details  of  his  business  in  all  departments,  and  for  many 


248  THE     SCOT     IN     AMFRICA. 

years  no  establishment  could  turn  out  more  perfect  work. 
His  proofreading  was  a  model  of  accuracy,  and  in  the 
printing  of  wood  cuts  he  was  especially  successful.  For 
a  long  time  his  office  was  the  only  one  in  America  that 
could  print  a  book  in  Greek  with  any  degree  of  accuracy, 
and  in  the  classics  he  attempted  to  rival  the  beauty  and 
correctness  of  the  Foulis  Press,  which  made  his  native 
city  so  famous  in  the  annals  of  typography.  To  the  end 
of  his  career  Mr.  Wilson  was  a 'devoted  Scot,  growing 
prouder,  it  almost  seemed,  of  his  native  land  as  the  years 
sped  on  and  it  became  to  him  simply  a  reminiscence. 
From  the  moment  he  could  read,  almost,  he  became  a 
student  of  the  poems  of  Robert  Burns;  and  as  early  as 
1837,  while  still  in  Belfast,  he  contributed  a  well-written 
and  appreciative  essay  on  the  life  and  character  of  the 
poet  to  an  edition  of  Burns's  writings  printed  in  that  city 
that  year.  He  also  delivered  a  noteworthy  address  on 
the  bard  in  Boston  in  connection  with  the  centenary 
celebration  of  1859.  Mr.  Wilson  closed  his  useful  and 
honorable  life — honorable  equally  to  Scotland  and  Amer 
ica — in  1868,  at  Cambridge. 

Our  next  illustration  had  to  deal  with  books,  not  as  a 
writer  or  manufacturer,  but  simply,  for  the  most  part,  as 
a  dealer,  although  he  knew  the  contents  of  the  books  he 
sold  more  intimately  than  many  who  professed  superior 
learning,  and  though  his  name  appeared  as  publisher  on 
the  title  pages  of  several  volumes.  This  was  William 
Gowans,  long  the  most  famous  of  New  York  booksell 
ers,  whose  stock  for  variety  and  value  was  only  equalled 
by  those  of  some  of  the  old-established  emporiums  in 
London  or  on  the  Continent.  Gowans  was  born  at 
Lesmahagow  in  1803,  died  in  New  York  on  Nov.  27, 
1870,  and  was  buried  a  few  days  afterward  in  Woodlawn 
Cemetery,  where  a  plain  stone  marks  his  resting  place. 
At  the  funeral  services  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Thomson, 
long  pastor  of  the  Fourth  Presbyterian  Church  in  New 
York  and  afterward  a  minister  at  Grantown,  Scotland, 
delivered  an  appropriate  address,  in  which  he  said: 

"  William  Gowans,  -.well  known — few  men  better 
known — among  the  men  of  literature,  not  only  in  New 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        249 

York — a  city  of  no  mean  literary  excellence — but  also 
over  all  the  land,  has  stood  amongst  us,  facile  princcps, 
as  a  peculiar  man.  A  native  of  Scotland,  having  been 
born  in  the  parish  of  Lesmahagow,  in  the  county  of 
Lanark,  in  the  year  1803,  he  immigrated  with  the  family 
to  Philadelphia  in  the  year  1821.  In  various  situations 
he  spent  the  succeeding  years  until  1830,  when  he  began 
his  career  as  bibliopole  in  Chatham  Street,  in  this  city. 
Between  the  little  store  and  little  stock  in  Chatham 
Street  and  the  thronged  passageways  of  115  Nassau 
Street,  tapestried — I  had  almost  said  padded  and  paved 
—with  books — one  will  say  what  a  change!  Yes,  but 
how  many  changes  are  embraced  between  two  such  ex 
tremes?  Another  generation  has  risen  and  has  buried 
that  that  first  patronized  the  bibliopole.  Authors  have 
been  born  and  have  written  their  names  on  the  grand 
historic  tablets  and  have  since  died.  Authors  long  dead 
and  buried  out  of  sight  have  been  disinterred  and,  silent 
for  centuries,  have  spoken  again,  and  modern  life  hears 
their  speech  and  lives  their  laborious  days  over  again,  all 
since  that  young  Scotsman  fathered  the  store  in  Chat 
ham  Street.  Since  then  bookselling  has  become  a  mar 
velous  and  mightily  honorable  trade,  and  one  only  yet 
in  its  infancy,  for  it  has  not  a  State  or  a  few  States,  but 
a  continent,  to  compass  and  an  appetite  insatiable  to 
provide  for.  William  Gowans  was  a  dealer  in  books. 
Aye,  so  will  some  most  pitiful  dealers  in  money  repre 
sent  him  and  all  such  as  he.  But  he  was  more.  He  was 
not  so  much  a  dealer  in  books  as  a  dealer  zvith  books. 
To  know  them,  their  authors,  age,  spirits,  range,  and 
bearing  was  not  his  labor  or  life  task;  it  was  his  delight 
and  high  enjoyment.  Among  books,  old  and  rare,  and 
the  rarer  and  older  the  more  agreeable  the  work  for  him, 
William  Gowans  was  the  antitype  of  Old  Mortality 
among  the  tombstones.  It  was  his  high  .calling  to  bring 
out  into  the  light  of  modern  life  what  time  and  ignorance 
were  fast  in  conspiracy  to  waste  away." 

Two  more  illustrations,  each  still  nearer  to  our  day, 
and  we  will  leave  the  makers  of  books.  One  of  these  we 
select  is  Henry  Ivison,  whose  firm  was  for  years  fore- 


250  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

most  in  New  York  in  the  publication  and  dissemination 
of  school-book  literature.  Mr.  Ivison  was  born  at  Glas 
gow  in  1808,  and  settled  in  America,  with  his  parents, 
when  twelve  years  of  age.  He  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
the  book  trade  as  apprentice  to  William  Williams,  book 
seller  in  Utica,  and  in  1830  started  business  on  his  own 
account  in  Auburn.  He  remained  there  for  sixteen 
years,  and  not  only  was  in  comfortable  circumstances, 
but  accumulated  a  little  money.  Then,  in  1846,  he  ac 
cepted  the  offer  of  a  partnership  with  Mark  H.  Newman 
of  New  York,  and  removed  to  that  city. 

The  copartnership  was  a  pleasant  and  profitable  one 
from  the  start,  and  of  one  scries  of  books — Sanders's 
Readers,  the  first  consecutive  series  of  school  readers 
published  in  America — the  sales  were  enormous.  Of  the 
"  Primer,'-  the  first  of  the  five  in  the  series,  never  less 
than  100,000  copies  were  ordered  printed  at  one  time  for 
quite  a  number  of  years.  In  1852  the  partnership  was 
renewed,  and  the  firm  became  known  as  Newman  & 
Ivison,  but  within  a  year,  through  the  death  of  the  senior 
partner,  the  entire  management  passed  into  Mr.  Ivison's 
hands.  The  firm  afterward  was  reorganized  several 
times,  and  bore  the  names  of  the  partners  who  subse 
quently  became  associated  with  him — one  of  these  part 
ners  being  H.  F.  Phinney,  a  son-in-law  of  J.  Fenimore 
Cooper — and  it  did  business  under  the  firm  name  of  Ivi 
son,  Blakeman,  Taylor  &  Co.  in  1881,  when  Mr.  Ivison 
retired,  leaving  his  interest  to  his  son.  After  retiring 
from  business,  Mr.  Ivison  led  a  quiet  and  happy  life  be 
tween  his  city  home  in  New  York  and  his  country  resi 
dence  at  Stockbridge,  Mass.  But  his  career  of  useful 
ness  still  continued.  As  a  Trustee  of  the  Union  Theo 
logical  Seminary,  an  Flder  in  the  Fifth  Avenue  Presby 
terian  Church,  and  in  many  other  directions  he  had 
plenty  of  scope  for  his  energies  and  for  the  exercise  of 
that  business  shrewdness  which  was  his  distinguishing 
characteristic  throughout  his  career.  He  died  after  a 
brief  illness,  in  New  York,  in  1884. 

Our  last  "  examplar  "  in  tin's  section,  Robert  Carter, 
was  for  years  the  leading  publisher  of  religious — thor- 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       951 

oughly  orthodox — literature  in  New  York,  and  in  his 
earlier  years  he  showed  a  degree  of  enterprise  and  of  re 
liance  on  his  own  judgment  which  few  religious-book 
publishers  have  shown  in  the  history  of  the  trade.  Mr. 
Carter  became  a  bookseller  and  publisher  by  force  of 
circumstances  rather  than  anything  else,  for  he  was  de 
signed  by  his  parents,  and  the  design  was  seconded  by 
his  own  inclinations,  to  be  a  teacher.  He  was  born  at 
Earlston,  not  many  miles  from  Abbotsford,  in  1807.  His 
own  education  was,  it  might  be  said,  not  much  more 
than  begun  when  in  1822  he  opened  a  night  school  in 
one  of  the  rooms  of  his  father's  cottage  for  the  young 
lads  of  the  neighborhood,  and  at  the  same  time  was  ap 
plying  himself  diligently  to  a  study  of  Latin  and  Greek, 
assisted  by  a  cousin  some  years  older,  who  had  been  at 
college.  In  1827  he  entered  upon  the  battle  of  life  by 
securing  a  position  as  teacher  in  a  grammar  school  at 
Peebles.  From  the  money  earned  during  the  two  years 
spent  in  that  work  he  saved  enough  money  to  spend  a 
session  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  Mr.  Carter 
landed  in  New  York  in  1831,  and  for  over  three  years 
was  engaged  in  teaching,  latterly  in  a  school  of  his  own, 
but  in  1834  he  commenced  his  real  career  by  leasing  a 
store  at  the  corner  of  Canal  and  Laurens  Streets  and 
entering"  into  business  as  a  seller  of  books.  It  was  a 
fairly  successful  venture,  but  too  slow  for  the  young 
merchant,  and  he  resolved  to  try  his  hand  at  publishing. 
His  first  experiment  was  a  book  which  it  is  safe  to  say 
no  other  publisher  in  America  would  have  risked  a  cent 
of  money  or  a  moment's  consideration  on —  '  The  Atone 
ment  and  Intercession  of  Jesus  Christ/'  by  Dr.  William 
Symington.  The  venture  hung  fire  at  first,  but  one  gen 
tleman  bought  100  copies  for  distribution,  another  wrote 
a  warm  eulogy  of  the  book  for  a  religious  paper,  and 
gradually  the  entire  edition  disappeared. 

This  book  brought  Mr.  Carter  into  notice  in  religious 
circles,  and  his  business  steadily  increased.  In  1841  he 
revisited  Scotland  in  search  of  business  connections  and 
books  to  sell,  and  while  there  bought  a  copy  of  the 
earlier  volumes  of  D'Aubigne's  "  History  of  the  Ref- 


252  THE    SCOT   IN   AMERICA. 

ormation,"  which  he  repttblished  immediately  on  his 
return,  and  which  reached  a  sale  of  over  50,000  copies. 
In  1848  Mr.  Carter  assumed  as  partners  his  brothers, 
Peter  and  Walter,  and  under  the  style  of  Robert  Carter 
&  Brothers  the  firm  moved  to  258  Broadway,  and  in 
1856  to  the  building'  at  the  corner  of  Spring  Street  and 
Broadway,  which  continued  to  be  its  place  of  business 
until  it  went  out  of  business,  after  the  death  of  its 
founder. 

Early  in  his  business  career  Mr.  Carter  made  two  reso 
lutions  to  which  ht  adhered  steadfastly — to  make  all 
purchases  for  cash  and  to  give  no  notes.  Therefore,  he 
always  knew  "  where  he  stood,"  whatever  the  condi 
tions  of  trade  or  general  business.  Then  no  book  was 
ever  published  whose  religious  teaching  was  not  unim 
peachable.  The  mere  fact  of  there  being  "  money  "  in 
a  publication  wras  in  itself  no  consideration,  and,  unless 
Robert  Carter  and  his  brothers  were  perfectly  certain 
that  a  book  was  strictly  orthodox,  that  its  teachings  were 
helpful,  that  some  benefit  was  to  be  gained  by  its  pe 
rusal,  no  thoughts  of  sale  would  tempt  the  firm's  imprint 
to  appear  on  the  title  page.  Some  even  good  men 
averred  that  in  all  this  the  Carters  were  too  particular, 
and  a  story  used  to  be  told  that  Robert  Carter  once  took 
home  a  manuscript  to  read,  and  was  delighted  with  it, 
talked  about  its  early  chapters  to  his  friends  with  en 
thusiasm,  and  had  made  arrangements  to  print  it,  but 
when  he  came  to  the  last  pages  he  saw  some  stains  that 
led  him  to  believe  the  writer  had  been  smoking  when  he 
penned  them,  and  as  part  of  the  stcry  had  shown  the 
evils  of  tobacco  he  returned  the  manuscript  at  once,  be 
cause  he  thought  the  writer  was  not  an  honest  man. 

A  Presbyterian  of  the  strictest  school,  accepting  hum 
bly  all  the  canons  of  that  denomination,  even  those  which 
are  most  sneered  and  laughed  at,  Mr.  Carter  was  a  bit 
ter  foe  of  hypocrisy  and  cant,  and  was  intolerant  of  dis 
honesty  in  any  form.  For,  although  it  is  the  common 
practice  to  charge  such  men  as  he  with  narrow-minded 
ness  and  intolerance,  a  more  unfounded  error  never  ac 
quired  popular  belief.  The  most  intolerant,  bigoted, 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       253 

self-conceited  prig"  to  be  found  in  any  community  is  the 
professed  infidel,  who  always  avers  that  he  sees  no  good 
in  any  man's  opinion  which  differs  from  his  own,  and  is 
either  sneering  or  gibing  or  denouncing  any  views  held 
by  his  fellow-men  which  do  not  square  with  those  senti 
ments  which,  generally  for  a  fee  or  an  advertisement,  he 
is  always  proclaiming  in  season  and  out  of  season.  The 
truly  religious  man  honors  all  sorts  of  sincere  belief,  and 
this  was  the  case  with  Robert  Carter.  He  cared  nothing 
for  controversial  literature — it  never  figured  in  his  list  of 
publications,  but  that  list  was  wide  enough  to  include 
literary  examples  from  every  evangelical  denomination. 
We  have  many  examples  in  the  trade  history  of  New 
York  of  men  achieving  distinction  in  the  common  call 
ings  of  life — the  callings  which  could  not  be  dignified 
with  the  title  of  professions — and  it  is  the  same  in  all 
centres  of  population.  For  many  years  the  official  time 
keeper  of  New  York,  as  he  might  be  called,  was  a  Scots 
man,  and  in  the  old  houses  of  the  city  no  furniture  is 
more  prized  than  that  made  by  Duncan  Phyfe,  a  native 
of  Glasgow,  who  was  for  many  years  at  the  head  of  the 
furniture-making  trade  in  America.  Even  to-day  his 
handiwork  stands  out  as  solid,  as  clear  cut,  and  as  beau 
tiful  as  when  it  first  left  his  workshop,  although,  for  very 
evident  reasons,  undoubted  examples  of  his  skill  are 
yearly  becoming  more  scarce.  We  can  easily  believe, 
however,  that  he  made  a  special  study  of  every  article  he 
manufactured,  that  the  workmanship,  even  where  con 
cealed,  was  honest,  and  everything  was  made  to  last, 
rather  than  merely  to  sell — as  is  the  fashion  nowadays. 
Duncan  Phyfe  was  born  in  1770,  and,  with  his  parents, 
emigrated  to  America  in  1783,  just  after  he  had  got 
through  schooling.  Where  he  learned  the  trade  of  a 
cabinetmaker  is  not  known.  It  is  possible  he  had  even 
started  to  understand  its  mysteries  before  he  left  Scot 
land,  but  about  1796  he  commenced  business  for  him 
self,  and  continued  steadfastly  at  work,  at  the  bench  and 
the  designing  board,  until  1850,  about  which  year  he 
died.  "  In  that  time,"  says  one  record,  "  he  made  a  vast 
deal  of  excellent  and  beautiful  mahogany  furniture,  in- 


254:  THE     SCOT    IN     AMERICA. 

eluding  pieces  of  all  sorts  and  sizes.  Chairs  were  his 
specialty.  A  dozen  well-authenticated  Duncan  Phyfe 
chairs  sold  not  long  ago  at  $22.50  each.  He  also  made 
card  tables  with  richly  carved  tripods  provided  with  an 
internal  mechanism  that  caused  the  legs  to  spread  or 
collapse,  as  desired.  The  simplest  carving  on  his  small 
chairs  was  wrought  with  the  utmost  care  and  precision, 
while  the  more  elaborate  carvings  on  the  larger  pieces 
were  marvels  of  the  art.  The  renovation  of  Duncan 
Phyfe's  work  is  expensive,  because  of  the  care  and  time 
required.  Phyfe  was  fond  of  introducing  the  figure  of 
the  lyre  into  his  furniture.  It  appears  in  chairs,  in  swing 
ing  mirrors,  and  in  various  pieces,  large  and  small.  He 
seldom  chose  to  mark  his  work,  and  only  experts  arc 
able  now  to  recognize  it. 

"  As  Phyfe  used  to  employ  fully  one  hundred  of  the 
most  skillful  journeyman  cabinetmakers  in  New  York, 
and  as  his  furniture  was  of  the  most  durable  sort,  there 
is  still  a  great  deal  of  his  work  in  existence.  It  is  sel 
dom  for  sale,  and  when  any  of  it  is  sent  to  the  auction 
room  it  is  usually  disposed  of  at  private  sale.  A  maiden 
lady  who  died  a  few  years  ago  at  the  age  of  ninety-four 
left  behind  her  a  full  set  of  Duncan  Phyfe  furniture,  the 
gift  of  her  father  when  she  was  a  girl  of  eighteen.  The 
set  was  reproduced  in  mahogany  by  a  German  cabinet 
maker,  and  imitations  of  it  are  to  be  found  in  some  of 
the  more  fashionable  stores." 

Among  the  hundreds  of  Scots  who  have  been  promi 
nent  in  St.  Louis,  probably  no  name  stands  out  in  bolder 
relief  or  is  held  in  more  pleasant  xemembrance  by  the 
older  residents  than  that  of  John  Shaw,  who  died  at  his 
residence  near  that  city,  in  1878,  at  the  advanced  age  of 
eighty-eight  years.  It  is  worth  while  dwelling  on  Mr. 
Shaw's  career  and  idiosyncrasies,  because  the  details 
show  how  many  transformations  may  happen  in  a  man's 
life  between  the  cradle  and  the  grave,  and  because  in  all 
he  said  and  did  he  was  most  characteristically  Scotch. 
John  Shaw  was  born  in  Edinburgh  Castle,  where  his 
father,  a  soldier,  resided  with  his  wife  in  the  barracks. 
His  parents  removed  to  Grantown,  in  the  north,  and 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       255 

his  early  years  were  spent  there.  While  yet  a  boy  he 
entered  the  army,  and  was  engaged  in  the  Spanish  cam 
paign  which  resulted  in  the  retreat  upon  Corunna  and 
the  death  of  Sir  John  Moore.  He  obtained  his  discharge 
shortly  before  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  and,  returning  to 
Grantown,  began  an  apprenticeship  as  a  stonemason,  in 
which  business  nearly  all  his  after  life  was  spent.  When 
his  apprenticeship  expired  he  wandered  all  over  Scot 
land  and  the  North  of  Ireland  to  acquire  experience  and 
skill  in  his  trade.  After  leading  a  life  of  this  kind  for 
some  time  he  married  and  returned  to  Grantown,  where 
some  of  his  children  were  born. 

Turning  his  steps  westward,  Shaw  landed  in  America, 
and  settled  in  St.  Louis  about  1842.  His  life  there  was 
that  of  an  active  and  energetic  master  builder.  All  for 
whom  he  worked  had  the  greatest  confidence  in  his 
ability,  and  he  soon  became  the  head  of  his  branch  of 
business.  Many  of  the  best  buildings  in  St.  Louis  are 
the  result  of  his  skill.  Among  others  were  the  founda 
tion  of  the  old  Post  Office,  the  Mercantile  Library  Hall, 
the  Old  Lindell,  and  numberless  stores  and  residences  of 
all  sizes.  In  1862,  finding  himself  possessed  of  a  com 
petency,  he  retired  from  business,  and,  purchasing  a 
large  tract  of  land  in  Franklin  County,  Mo.,  settled 
there  and  engaged  in  the  quiet  life  of  a  farmer. 

"  Mr.  Shaw,"  wrote  one  who  knew  him  well,  shortly 
after  his  death,,  "  was  a  man  of  marked  force  of  charac 
ter,  decided  in  his  opinions,  and  often  severe  in  his  judg 
ments.  To  a  stranger  he  may  have  appeared  bluff  and 
brusque  in  manner,  but  it  was  merely  on  the  surface,  for 
any  of  those  who  enjoyed  his  acquaintance  knew  that  he 
possessed  many  kindly  qualities  and  a  warm,  generous 
heart.  In  enthusiasm  for  his  native  land  (which  he  twice 
revisited  after  making  his  home  in  St.  Louis)  he  was 
really  '  second  to  none.'  He  was  a  diligent  and  careful 
reader,  and,  while  well  informed  upon  all  subjects,  he 
took  a  special  interest  in  the  history  of  the  Highland 
clans,  and  could  tell  many  thrilling  stories  of  their  fights 
and  feuds.  Of  what  he  called  his  own  clan  he  felt  par 
ticularly  proud,  and  jocularly  claimed  that  he  was  its  real 


256  ^HE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

chief.  As  became  a  thorough  Highlander,  he  had  a 
good  deal  of  the  Jacobite  in  his  nature,  and  felt  a  gen 
uine  contempt  for  the  memory  of  '  the  wee,  wee  German 
lairdie.'  To  sum  up,  he  was  as  thorough  a  Scotsman  as 
if  he  had  never  left  the  soil.  All  his  standards  of  com 
parison  were  there,  and  his  great  delight  ever  was  to 
recall  the  scenes  and  memories,  the  history  and  tradi 
tions,  the  wit  and  wisdom  of  '  Auld  Scotland.'  " 

Turning  to  Chicago,  we  are  confronted  with  an  array 
of  names  prominent  in  every  walk  to  which  a  volume 
would  hardly  do  justice.  As  a  fairly  representative  ca 
reer  we  select  that  of  George  Smith,  who,  in  1839,  estab 
lished  the  first  bank  in  the  city.  Mr.  Smith  was  born  at 
Old  Deer,  Aberdeenshire,  in  1808,  and  was  intended  for 
the  medical  profession.  After  studying  two  years  in 
Aberdeen  University  his  health  failed,  and,  believing  that 
an  active  outdoor  life  was  necessary  for  his  constitution, 
he  turned  his  attention  for  a  time  to  farming,  with  the 
most  beneficial  results.  But  he  had  no  desire  to  resume 
his  professional  studies,  and,  crossing  the  Atlantic,  in 
l833,  "  went  West,"  before  that  phrase  became  current, 
and  entered  upon  a  business  career.  Chicago  was  then 
not  only  decidedly  far  West,  but  it  was  little  more  than 
a  village,  yet  Mr.  Smith  believed  that  its  geographical 
position  insured  it  a  grand  future.  In  1834  he  com 
menced  dealing  in  real  estate,  and  bought  up  as  many 
lots  as  he  could  within  the  then  limits  of  the  city.  Be 
lieving  that  the  then  newly  conceived  City  of  Milwaukee 
might  be  a  close  rival  to  Chicago,  or,  at  all  events,  an 
equally  prosperous  city,  he  invested  largely  in  its  lots 
and  sold  out  his  Chicago  holdings  in  1836  at  a  consid 
erable  profit,  one-quarter  of  the  price  being  in  cash  and 
the  rest  in  notes.  A  tide  of  commercial  depression,  how 
ever,  swept  over  the  place  the  following  year,  and,  as  his 
notes  were  unpaid,  Mr.  Smith  had  to  resume  possession 
of  his  Chicago  lots.  He  ultimately  lest  nothing  by  the 
transaction,  however.  In  1839  ne  helped  to  obtain  a 
charter  for  the  Wisconsin  Fire  and  Marine  Insurance 
Company,  which  was  then  established  with  himself  as 
President,  and  the  late  Alexander  Mitchell  as  Secretary. 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       257 

The  latter  really  was  the  practical  head  of  the  corporation 
from  the  beginning,  for  Mr.  Smith  soon  started  the  Chi 
cago  banking  establishment  of  George  Smith  &  Co., 
the  pioneer  of  the  great  financial  institutions  which  now 
adorn  that  city.  His  Chicago  and  Milwaukee  interests 
proved  veritable  gold  mines,  and  in  1852  Mr.  Smith 
began  to  think  seriously  of  retiring  from  business  cares 
and  enjoying  the  fruits  of  his  business  career  free  from 
all  commercial  worriments  and  entanglements.  The  first 
step  was  the  disposal  of  his  interest  in  the  Milwaukee 
bank  to  Mr.  Mitchell,  whose  business  sagacity  had  raised 
the  institution  to  a  high  eminence  among  the  financial 
concerns  of  the  Northwest,  and  bit  by  bit  he  steadily 
closed  up  all  his  other  active  business  interests.  These, 
however,  were  so  many  and  so  intricate  that  the  task  of 
unloading  judiciously  was  by  no  means  an  easy  one,  and 
it  was  not  until  1861  that  Mr.  Smith  found  himself  free 
from  all  entanglements  and  ready  to  enter  upon  his  plan 
of  rest.  He  then  retired  to  Great  Britain,  where  he  still 
enjoys  the  fruits  of  his  years  of  business  activity. 

We  may  take  a  more  recent  illustration  from  the  town 
of  South  Chicago,  now  a  part  of  the  big  city,  although  it 
seems  to  preserve  its  individuality.  John  Oliver,  who 
died  there  in  August,  1894,  was  a  notable  figure  in  many 
ways.  Born  at  Riccarton,  Ayrshire,  in  1835,  he  was  ed 
ucated  in  the  Kilmarnock  Academy,  and  settled  in  Amer 
ica  when  fifteen  years  of  age,  with  no  capital  except  his 
brains.  He  began  his  business  career  as  a  bookkeeper 
with  a  Chicago  lumber  firm,  and  remained  with  the  con 
cern  for  several  years.  Then  he  entered  into  business  for 
himself  and  pegged  away  until  he  was  rated  among  the 
millionaires  of  Chicago.  After  he  retired  from  the  lum 
ber  business  he  confined  his  attention  to  his  real  estate 
interests,  and  spent  the  evening  of  life  in  a  quiet  and 
pleasant  manner,  enjoying  the  good  wishes  of  his  friends 
and  business  acquaintances,  among  whom  were  many  of 
the  pioneers  of  Chicago. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  Alexander  Mitchell  of  Mil 
waukee  in  connection  with  his  one-time  partner,  George 
Smith,  and  it  is  fitting  now  to  enter  more  at  length  into 


258  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

the  wonderful  career  of  that  truly  typical  Scotsman.  Mr. 
Mitchell  was  born  at  Ellon,  Aberdeenshire,  in  1817. 
He  had  two  years  of  experience  in  financiering  in  a 
banking  house  in  Peterhead,  experience  which  was  of 
the  utmost  service  to  him  in  after  life.  In  1839  ne  kft 
Scotland,  and,  settling  in  the  then  "  paper  "  city  of  Mil 
waukee,  grew  up  with  it.  Not  only  that,  for,  as  the  man 
ager  of  the  Marine  and  Fire  Insurance  Company,  he 
had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  making  the  city  grow.  The 
bank  early  acquired  a  reputation  for  honesty,  liberality, 
and  thoughtfulness  in  its  dealings.  It  entered  into  no 
wild-cat  schemes,  fostered  every  legitimate  industry, 
pinned  its  faith  to  Milwaukee  as  a  centre  of  commerce, 
and  won.  All  over  the  Northwest  the  banking  institu 
tion  was  famous,  and  "  as  sound  as  Mitchell's  Bank  " 
passed  into  a  common  saying.  But  Mr.  Mitchell  did 
not  rest  content  with  being  simply  a  banker.  He  saw 
that  the  resources  of  the  Northwest  had  to  be  developed, 
and  this  led  him  into  railway  schemes,  until  the  magni 
tude  of  these  operations  eclipsed  his  banking  interests, 
while  at  the  same  time  they  fed  them.  Bit  by  bit  he  be 
came  the  builder,  promoter,  or  financier  of  a  series  of 
railroads  which  was  aimed  to  reach  through  the  North 
west  and  to  open  new  avenues  of  commerce,  until  under 
the  general  name  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul 
Railroad,  these  systems  are  now  regarded  as  among  the 
r.:ost  important  in  America. 

Mr.  Mitchell  served  in  the  United  States  House  of 
Representatives  from  1871  to  1875,  anc^  thus  acquired  a 
national  reputation,  and  on  his  retirement  from  political 
life  went  on  calmly  with  what  was  the  real  business  of 
his  career — the  development  of  Milwaukee.  He  died  at 
New  York  City,  while  on  a  visit,  in  1887. 

Mr.  Mitchell  was  one  of  those  far-seeing  men  who 
can  forecast  the  future  successfully,  who  can  weigh  a 
thousand  contingencies,  and,  having  figured  out  their 
value  or  possibilities,  hold  on  to  that  figuring  with  all 
the  energy  and  determination  which  are  necessary  to 
win  success  even  under  the  most  brilliant  circumstances. 
He  saw  that  the  possibilities  in  the  way  of  the  develop- 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        259 

ment  of  the  Northwest  were  practically  unlimited  and 
that  means  of  transportation  were  the  first  as  well  as  the 
all-important  requisites  to  bring  about  that  development, 
and  to  furnishing  transportation  he  devoted  himself. 
Many  laughed  at  the  energy  with  which  he  threw  a  bit 
of  railroad  line  into  a  practically  unoccupied  territory, 
but  the  business  soon  followed  the  railroad  wherever  it 
was,  and  justified  the  wisdom  of  its  builder.  In  financial 
matters  his  foundation  was  honesty.  He  knew  that 
there  was  no  royal  road  to  wealth,  that  all  schemes  for 
getting  rich  quickly  were  wrong  in  theory,  and  would, 
sooner  or  later,  end  in  smoke.  He  had  no  patience  with 
wild-cat  banking,  with  financial  gambling  under  any 
name,  and  his  conservatism  in  this  respect,  sometimes 
galling  to  the  "  go-ahead  "  ideas  of  many  of  the  business 
men  of  the  West,  leavened  the  whole  trade  of  Milwaukee 
and  made  its  progress  more  substantial  than  that  of 
most  Western  towns.  Busy  as  his  life  was,  and  thor 
oughly  American  as  were  its  varied  interests,  Mr.  Mitchell 
never  forgot  the  land  of  his  birth.  To  everything  Scotch 
in  his  adopted  city  he  was  a  liberal  giver,  and  at  the  an 
nual  gatherings  of  his  countrymen — on  St.  Andrew's  Day 
or  in  the  outdoor  reunion  of  each  Summer — he  was  al 
ways  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic  participants,  and  took 
almost  a  boyish  delight  in  meeting  and  greeting  his  ".  ain 
folk,"  whatever  their  station  in  life  might  be. 

In  the  affairs  of  the  bank,  Mr.  Mitchell  was  assisted 
by  Mr.  David  Ferguson  and  many  others  from  "  the 
Land  o'  Cakes,"  but  in  his  latter  years  his  mainstay  was 
his  nephew,  Mr.  John  Johnston,  a  native  of  Aberdeen 
and  a  graduate  of  its  university.  Mr.  Johnston,  soon 
after  his  arrival  in  Milwaukee,  began  to  take  an  active 
interest  in  municipal  as  well  as  financial  affairs,  and  once, 
indeed,  refused  a  nomination  as  Mayor  of  the  city  when 
the  nomination  \vas  equivalent  to  election.  Mr.  Johnston 
proved  himself  to  be  a  scholar  as  well  as  a  banker,  and 
was  recognized  as  one  of  the  literary  lights  of  the  city. 
This  led  to  his  appointment  as  one  of  the  Regents  of  the 
Wisconsin  State  University,  as  President  of  the  Wiscon 
sin  Historical  Society,  and  to  many  other  honors  of  a 


260  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

like  nature.  In  the  Scotch  community  he  soon  became 
a  leader,  and  in  such  games  as  curling,  quoits,  and  oth 
ers  that  smacked  of  the  old  land  he  was  an  adept.  Be 
sides  serving  as  President  of  the  Grand  National  Curling 
Club  of  America,  he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Northwestern  Curling  Association  and  its  chief  executive 
officer.  At  his  death,  in  1887,  Mr.  Mitchell  left  one- 
third  of  the  stock  of  the  bank  to  Mr.  Johnston.  The  busi 
ness  continued  to  increase  to  such  an  extent  that  Mr. 
Johnson  felt  there  should  be  an  augmentation  of  the 
beard  of  directors.  Some  of  his  colleagues  held  different 
views,  and,  as  a  result  of  the  variety  of  opinions,  Mr. 
Johnston  retired,  in  1892,  in  the  prime  of  life,  intending  to 
spend  his  time  at  his  books  or  his  outdoor  amusements. 
But  the  financial  crisis  of  1893,  which  involved  Mitchell's 
Bank,  as  so  many  others,  called  him  back  to  his  desk,  and 
he  once  more  cheerfully  went  into  harness,  with  the  most 
beneficial  results  to  all  concerned,  and  to  the  general  sat 
isfaction  of  all  business  circles  in  Milwaukee. 

We  may  here  turn,  for  the  sake  of  variety,  to  find  an 
illustration  of  the  Scot  in  agriculture.  One  case  in  par 
ticular  is  peculiar,  inasmuch  as  the  individual  was  pos 
sessed  of  a  competency  before  settling  in  America. 
George  Grant,  a  native  of  Speyside,  made  a  large  fortune 
in  London  as  a  silk  merchant.  Then  he  desired  to  do 
something  practical  to  benefit  other  men,  and  hit  upon 
the  device  of  organizing  a  British  colony  in  Kansas.  His 
first  purchase  was  a  tract  of  land  containing  69,120  acres, 
to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Victoria.  To  this  tract  he 
afterward  added  a  large  number  of  acres.  The  first  set 
tlers  arrived  in  May,  1873,  an<^  so  rapid  was  the  growth 
of  the  settlement  that  there  was  not,  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  in  1887,  an  acre  of  land  for  sale  within  ten  miles 
of  Victoria  on  the  south.  None  of  the  settlers  were  al 
lowed  to  purchase  less  than  640  acres.  Mr.  Grant  began 
with  a  flock  of  3,555  breeding  ewes  and  60  long-wooled 
English  rams  of  the  highest  pedigree,  and  in  1874  his 
wool  alone  brought  $11,700,  in  Boston,  at  33  cents  per 
pound.  In  the  management  of  his  vast  concerns  Mr. 
Grant  displayed  great  activity,  and  a  remarkable  busi- 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       261 

ness  aptitude.  His  efforts  were  successful  in  a  very  emi 
nent  degree,  and  he  enjoyed  largely  the  confidence  and 
esteem  of  those  who  had  business  or  private  associations 
with  him.  The  Scotch  farmer  in  America  is  generally 
successful,  Mid  instances  of  this  success  might  be  drawn 
from  the  local  histories  of  every  county  on  the  continent. 
Monument  builders  are  not  very  numerous  in  any 
country,  except  we  include  such  people  as  build  monu 
ments  to  themselves,  and  therefore  it  would  seem  that 
those  who  erect  memorials  to  others,  mainly  on  patriotic 
grounds,  are  deserving  of  the  highest  meed  of  praise. 
The  Scots  in  America  have  done  their  share  in  this  re 
gard  if  we  estimate  what  they  have  accomplished  com 
pared  with  that  of  other  nationalities  whose  numbers 
greatly  exceed  theirs.  One  of  the  most  striking  statues  in 
the  "Monumental  City"  of  Baltimore,  on  a  commanding 
position  in  Druid  Park,  is  the  huge  figure  of  Sir  William 
Wallace,  Scotland's  popular  hero,  which  is  referred  to  in 
an  earlier  chapter.  The  donor  of  the  statue  to  Balti 
more,  Mr.  William  Wallace  Spence,  was  born  at  Edin 
burgh  in  1815,  left  his  native  land  in  1834,  and  went  to 
Norfolk,  Va.,  where  he  obtained  a  situation  with  the  old 
Scotch  firm  of  Robert  Souttar  &  Sons,  who  were  then 
largely  engaged  in  the  West  India  trade.  One  of  the 
local  papers  at  Baltimore,  in  reviewing  Mr.  Spence's  ca 
reer  at  the  time  the  statue  of  Wallace  was  presented  to 
the  city,  in  1893,  gave  the  following  particulars  as  to  his 
career :  "  While  in  the  employ  of  Messrs.  Souttar,  Mr. 
Spence  became  well  acquainted  with  their  trade,  spending 
several  months  in  the  West  India  Islands  to  gain  addi 
tional  knowledge  of  it.  For  two  years  he  was  in  busi 
ness  for  himself  in  Norfolk,  and  then,  in  1841,  came  to 
Baltimore,  commencing  business  with  his  brother,  John 
F.  Spence,  under  the  firm  name  of  W.  W.  Spence  &  Co. 
In  1849  ^r-  John  F.  Spence  went  to  San  Francisco  to 
open  a  house  there,  and  in  the  same  year  Mr.  Andrew 
Reid  came  to  Baltimore  from  Norfolk  and  became  asso 
ciated  in  business  with  Mr.  Spence  under  the  firm  name 
of  Spence  &  Reid.  The  firm  remained  in  business  for 
twenty-five  years,  when  both  its  members  retired.  For 


262  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

the  past  twenty  years  Mr.  Spencc  has  been  largely  inter 
ested  in  purely  financial  affairs.  He  was  for  many  years 
President  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society,  is  President  of  the 
Presbyterian  Eye,  Ear  and  Throat  Charity  Hospital,  and 
of  the  Egenton  Orphan  Asylum.  Mr.  Spence  is  an  act 
ive  member  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  and  for 
nearly  forty  years  has  been  a  ruling  Elder." 

But  Mr.  Spence  is  not  the  only  Scot  whose  patriotism 
has  raised  a  monument  in  America  to  one  of  his  coun 
trymen.  That  labor  of  love  had  a  precedent  in  1888,  in 
Albany,  when  the  Burns  Monument  there  was  unveiled 
through  the  exertions  of  Mr.  Peter  Kinnear.  Mr.  Kin- 
near,  who  is  a  native  of  Brechin,  and  was  born  there  in 
1826,  came  to  this  country  in  1847,  anc^  f°r  many  years 
carried  on  business  in  Albany  as  a  brassfounder,  acquir 
ing  a  handsome  competence  as  a  result  of  his  labor,  and 
then  taking  a  warm  interest  in  various  business  matters 
in  his  adopted  city,  as  well  as  developing  activity  in 
municipal  affairs.  For  many  years  he  was  active  as  an 
official  in  all  the  Scotch  organizations  in  Albany — St. 
Andrew's  Society,  Burns  Club,  and  Caledonian  So 
ciety — in  everything  Scotch  except  curling;  he  drew  the 
line  at  that.  The  St.  Andrew's  Society  was  his  favorite 
organization,  and  he  served  it  for  many  years  as  Secre 
tary,  and  for  several  terms  was  its  President  and  chief 
spirit.  His  connection  with  that  venerable  society 
brought  him  into  close  relations  with  all  his  country 
people  in  Albany  cf  whatever  degree,  and  that,  coupled 
with  his  enthusiastic  admiration  for  his  country's  bard, 
led  to  the  erection  of  what  had  long  been  one  of  his 
dreams — the  statue  of  Burns  which  now  graces  the 
beautiful  Washington  Park  of  Albany.  The  money  with 
which  the  monument  of  the  poet  was  set  up  was  not  the 
gift  of  Mr.  Kinnear.  In  its  erection  he  was  simply  act 
ing  as  executor  in  carrying  out  the  wishes  of  an  old 
Scotswoman  who  was  long  regarded  in  Albany  as  a  mi 
ser,  but  the  terms  of  the  bequest  were  such  that  Mr.  Kin- 
near  could,  had  he  so  desired,  placed  a  marble  or  other 
tablet  in  the  park  and  retained  the  balance  of  the  money. 
But  he  was  too  honest  a  man  to  take  advantage  of  any 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        263 

quibble  that  might  be  raised  for  any  personal  gain  to  him 
self,  and  he  rejoiced  that  Mary  McPherson's  eccentricities 
and  close-fistedness  had  been  the  means  of  putting  it  into 
his  power  to  realize  his  desire  of  seeing  a  monument  to 
Scotia's  darling  poet  in  the  city  of  his  adoption.  So, 
soon  after  Mary  McPherson  died,  on  Feb.  6,  1886,  the 
legal  machinery  in  the  case  was  fully  put  in  operation, 
and  in  a  short  time  Mr.  Charles  Calverley,  sculptor,  of 
New  York,  formerly  of  Albany,  was  at  work  on  the  clay 
model  of  the  figure  of  the  poet.  Mr.  Kinnear  never  for 
a  moment  concealed  or  thought  to  conceal  Mary  Mc- 
Pherson's  share  in  the  monument,  but  it  should  not  be 
forgotten  that  but  for  him  and  for  her  reliance  on  his 
honesty  and  common  sense  she  would  never  have  made 
a  will  at  all. 

The  statue  was  completed  and  unveiled  on  Sept.  30, 
1888,  and  the  day  of  the  unveiling  was  a  memorable  one 
in  the  history  of  the  Scotch  population  of  Albany.  The 
figure  itself,  as  a  work  of  art,  fully  deserved  the  high  praise 
which  was  lavished  upon  it  when  first  seen  and  so  fre 
quently  since.  Unlike  most  sculptors  who  have  essayed 
a  figure  of  Burns,  Mr.  Calverley  had  no  previously  con 
ceived  ideals  or  theories  to  work  out.  He  simply  start 
ed  on  his  task  with  the  view  of  reproducing  a  lifelike 
portrait  of  the  man,  tempered  in  details  so  as  to  fashion 
a  work  that  would  be  accepted  as  correct  in  its  portrait 
ure,  while  satisfying  the  highest  artistic  requirements. 
The  bases  for  his  work  were  the  only  "  originals  "  in  ex 
istence,  the  Nasmyth  portrait  and  a  cast  of  the  skull,  and 
these  were  used  to  the  utmost,  with  hints  taken  from 
Skirving  and  later  engravers  and  artists.  The  result  is 
a  figure  of  Burns  that  is  more  satisfying — as  some  one 
put  it — than  any  other,  and  which  in  most  respects  ranks 
superior  to  any  of  the  other  statues  of  the  poet  which 
his  admirers  have  raised  to  his  memory. 

Among  the  men  who  have  been  most  active  in  the 
building  up  of  the  far  Western  cities,  Scotsmen  will  most 
assuredly  and  invariably  be  found  in  the  very  front  rank. 
An  instance  of  this  comes  before  us  from  Portland,  Ore 
gon,  where  William  Reid,  a  native  of  Glasgow,  is  re- 


264  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

garded  as  prominent  among-  those  who  have  helped  to 
make  that  city  what  it  is  to-day,  one  of  the  most  pros 
perous  trade  centres  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Mr.  Reid 
was  born  in  1842,  and  after  receiving  his  early  education 
in  his  native  city,  crossed  the  Atlantic.  His  career  in 
America  has  been  eminently  useful  and  successful,  and  he 
has  combined  the  qualities  of  a  literary  man  and  financier 
so  as  to  give  magnificent  results  to  Portland,  the  city  in 
which  he  has  his  home.  Mr.  Reid  organized  in  1874  the 
Portland  Board  of  Trade,  and  is  credited  with  having 
been  the  means  of  investing,  or  causing  to  be  invested, 
over  ten  millions  of  foreign  capital  in  the  industries  and 
agriculture  and  development  of  Oregon.  A  pamphlet 
entitled  "  Oregon  and  Washington  as  Fields  for  Labor 
and  Capital,"  published  in  1873,  was  widely  distributed 
in  Britain,  and  was  the  prime  factor  in  the  establishment 
of  the  Washington  and  Oregon  Trust  and  Investment 
Company,  with  a  capital  of  $1,000,000;  and  in  the  rail 
way,  financial,  and  industrial  interests  of  Oregon  and 
Washington  he  has  been  recognized  as  a  powerful  fac 
tor. 

We  have  already  mentioned  several  names  associated 
with  Boston,  and,  did  the  limits  of  this  work  permit  it, 
an  interesting  chapter  or  two,  might  be  written  headed 
"  Scots  in  Boston."  Such  firms  as  Hogg,  Brown  &  Tay 
lor,  the  Gilchrists,  and  Shepherd,  Norwell  &  Co.,  have  not 
only  led  the  dry  goods  trade  in  that  city  for  many  years, 
but  from  them  a  host  of  Scotch  dry  goods  establishments 
has  spread  all  through  the  country,  even  New  York,  it 
self  a  centre  of  the  trade,  having  numbered  the  graduates 
from  these  establishments  among  its  great  merchants. 
But  the  Scot  in  Boston  has  flourished  in  all  the  walks 
of  business  life.  For  many  years  a  notable  figure  in  its 
commercial  circles  was  James  M.  Smith,  who  \vas  at  the 
head  of  a  large  brewery,  and  had  an  interest  in  a  dozen 
other  concerns.  Born  at  Arbuthnott,  Kincardineshire, 
in  1832,  and  educated  at  the  Montrose  Academy,  he 
commenced  his  business  life  as  an  apprentice  in  the  once 
famous  Edinburgh  establishment  of  Duncan,  Flockhart 
&  Co.,  druggists.  When  his  apprenticeship  was  over  he 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        265 

went  to  Canada,  and  finally  settled  in  Boston,  where  he 
drifted  into  a  groove  that  made  him  a  successful  busi 
ness  man,  "  a  man  of  means  and  substance,"  as  the  old 
saying  puts  it.  No  Scot  in  Boston  was  more  full  of  pa 
triotism  than  he,  and  his  patriotism  he  was  always  ready 
to  back  up  in  the  most  practical  way — by  his  bawbees. 
He  was  a  ruling  spirit  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  and 
liberal  to  all  its  schemes.  For  many  years  he  was  Pres 
ident  of  the  Scots'  Charitable  Society,  and  his  business 
administration  of  its  affairs,  and  wise  liberality  made  that 
venerable  organization  take  on  a  new  lease  of  popularity. 
He  revived,  too,  the  almost  defunct  British  Charitable 
Society  and  placed  it  on  a  substantial  and  useful  footing, 
and  in  a  hundred  other  ways  was  constantly  manifesting 
his  interest  in  the  old  land  and  his  countrymen.  Mr. 
Smith  died  in  1894,  and  his  departure  left  a  blank  in  the 
Scottish  ranks  in  the  "Hub  "  which  will,  we  fear,  long 
remain  unfilled.  The  same  year  the  grave  closed  over 
another  leal-hearted  Boston  Scot — Robert  Ferguson  of 
the  firm  of  Shepherd,  Norwell  &  Co.  He  was  on  a  visit 
to  Paris  at  the  time,  traveling  in  search  of  health,  and 
was  about  to  leave  the  Continent  and  return  for  a  spell 
to  his  native  place,  Kirkmahoe,  Dumfriesshire — where  he 
was  born  sixty-five  years  before1 — when  the  end  came.  Mr. 
Ferguson  settled  in  America  in  1855,  and  was  employed 
in  several  dry  goods  houses  in  New  York,  notably  that 
of  A.  T.  Stewart  &  Co.,  with  whom  he  remained  fifteen 
years,  and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  best  buyers,  always 
cautious,  but  ever  ready  to  notice  the  selling  value  of 
everything  brought  before  him.  In  1870  he  went  to  Bos 
ton  to  assume  a  partnership  with  the  firm  already  men 
tioned,  a  partnership  that  continued  until  his  death.  In 
the  Scots'  Charitable  Society  he  was  an  active  and  gen 
erous  member,  and  was  known  for  his  artistic  and  literary 
tastes.  He  won  hosts  of  friends  in  Boston,  and  was  re 
garded  not  only  as  an  upright  and  able  merchant,  but 
as  an  exemplary  and  patriotic  citizen. 

We  have  just  spoken  of  the  ramifications  of  the  Scotch 
dry  goods  houses  in  America  which  radiated  from  Bos 
ton  as  a  centre.  But  one  might  think  that  Scotsmen 


266  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

exerted  a  prime  influence  in  the  trade  all  over  the  coun 
try.  One  remarkable  evidence  of  this  is  the  rapid  suc 
cess  of  the  Syndicate  Trading  Company  of  New  York, 
which  is  a  sort  of  dry  goods  exchange  for  its  consti 
tuting  members.  Regarding  the  inception  and  composi 
tion  of  this  organization,  a  correspondent,  Mr.  Donald 
Mackay  of  Worcester,  sent  the  following  intelligent  ac 
count  to  the  New  York  "  Scottish-American  "  in  Octo 
ber,  1895: 

"  A.  Swan  Brown,  when  a  young  clerk  in  a  dry  goods 
house  in  Worcester,  having  an  instinct  for  enterprise 
and  speculation,  foresaw  a  great  opportunity  in  amalga 
mating  the  Scottish  dry  goods  establishments  into  one 
great  syndicate.  His  reasoning  was  that,  bound  by  na 
tional  ties  (and  many  of  them  on  terms  of  personal  inti 
macy)  they  would  work  together  without  friction  to  the 
advantage  of  the  various  firms  involved  in  the  enterprise. 
The  chief  aim,  however,  of  the  syndicate  would  be  to  es 
tablish  an  office  in  New  York  City,  in  touch  with  the 
markets  of  the  world,  and  purchase  in  unprecedentedly 
large  quantities  and  at  cheaper  prices  than  would  be  of 
fered  to  satisfy  those  who  cannot  afford  to  buy  except 
on  a  basis  to  satisfy  a  limited  demand  in  a  single  estab 
lishment. 

"  To  A.  Swan  Brown  belongs  the  credit  of  organizing 
one  of  the  greatest  dry  goods  institutions  in  this  or  any 
other  country — the  Syndicate  Trading  Company,  of 
which  he  is  the  President.  It  comprises  the  Callender, 
McAuslan  &  Troup  Company,  Providence,  R.  L;  Adam, 
Meldrum  &  Anderson  Company,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.;  Sibley, 
Lindsay  &  Curr,  Rochester,  N.  Y. ;  Brown,  Thomson  & 
Co.,  Hartford,  Conn.;  Forbes  &  Wallace,  Springfield, 
Mass. ;  Denholm  &  McKay  Company,  Worcester,  Mass. ; 
Dives,  Pomeroy  &  Stewart,  Reading,  Penn.;  Almy,  Bige- 
low  &  Washburn,  Salem,  Mass.;  Minneapolis  Dry  Goods 
Company,  Minneapolis,  Minn. ;  Doggett  Dry  Goods 
Company,  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  and  Pettis  Dry  Goods  Com 
pany,  Indianapolis,  Ind.  Mr.  Brown  approached  these 
various  firms,  scattered  throughout  the  country,  and  the 
syndicate  now  formed  is  the  result  of  his  efforts.  These 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       267 

eleven  firms  are  among  the  largest  dry  goods  houses  in 
this  country,  and  have  experienced  buyers  in  all  the  lead 
ing  markets  of  the  world.  Each  firm  of  the  combine  is 
established  and  managed  by  Scotsmen,  and  the  employes 
are  largely  Scottish,  or  of  Scottish  descent. 

"  Mr.  Brown  has  purchased  a  controlling  interest  in 
the  Boston  Store  of  Worcester,  of  which  he  is  now 
President,  and  has  removed  his  family  from  New  York 
to  a  unique  residence  which  he  recently  had  erected  in 
one  of  the  suburbs  of  that  place.  He  has  lately  exhibited 
an  interest  in  the  municipal  affairs  of  this  city,  and  it  is 
suggested  that  at  some  not  distant  day  he  may  be  Mayor 
Brown  of  Worcester,  Mass." 

A  sad  break  was  made  in  one  of  the  firms  constituting 
this  syndicate  early  in  January,  1896,  when,  within  a  few 
days  of  each  other,  John  McAuslan  and  John  E.  Troup 
of  the  firm  of  Callender,  McAuslan  &  Troup,  Providence, 
passed  away.  Both  men  were  notable  examples  of  Scot 
tish-American  merchants.  Mr.  McAuslan  was  born  at 
Kilmadan,  Argyllshire,  in  1835.  He  learned  the  drapery 
business  in  Greenock,  and  in  1858  secured  an  appoint 
ment  in  the  store  of  Hogg,  Brown  &  Taylor,  Boston.  Mr. 
Troup  was  born  at  Old  Meldrum,  Aberdeenshire,  in 
1829,  and  until  he  sailed  for  the  United  States,  in  1855, 
was  employed  as  a  clerk  in  Aberdeen.  At  Boston  he 
entered  the  firm  of  George  Turnbull  &  Co.,  and  re 
mained  in  that  establishment  until,  in  1866,  along  with 
Walter  Callender  and  John  McAuslan,  he  went  to 
Providence  and  opened  the  establishment,  which,  from 
the  time  it  started  until  the  present,  has  been  the  leading 
dry  goods  emporium  of  Rhode  Island. 

Recent  and  typical  examples,  and  examples,  too, 
which  combine  New  York  and  Boston  dry  goods  train 
ing,  based  on  a  thorough  Scotch  foundation,  may  be 
found  in  the  careers  of  two  brothers,  Thomas  and  James 
Simpson,  who,  until  their  lives  were  cut  short  when  they 
should  have  been  in  their  prime,  ranked  among  the  lead 
ing  retail  merchants  in  their  line  of  business  in  New 
York.  They  were  born  at  Markinch,  Fifeshire,  and  served 
apprenticeships  to  the  drapery  business  there,  and  after- 


268  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

ward  gained  wider  experience  in  Glasgow.  Settling  in 
America,  they  secured  positions  in  the  house  of  Hogg, 
Brown  &  Taylor,  and  then,  when  they  reached  the  top 
rung  in  the  ladder  of  promotion,  they,  in  accordance 
with  the  custom  of  the  leading  employes  of  that  house, 
and  with  its  blessing,  started  out  for  themselves.  Thomas 
cast  in  his  lot  with  Lawrence,  Mass.,  while  James  went  to 
Norwich,  Conn.  After  a  while,  although  both  were  suc 
cessful,  they  longed  for  a  wider  sphere  of  business,  and, 
an  old  New  York  house  being  in  the  market  owing  to  the 
desire  of  the  senior  partner  to  retire,  they  secured  the  in 
terest  thus  offered,  sold  off  their  respective  establish 
ments,  and,  removing  to  New  York,  organized  the  old 
firm  into  that  of  Simpson,  Crawford  &  Simpson,  Mr. 
Crawford  who  connected  the  Simpsons  being  the  holding 
over  partner  in  the  old  firm,  and,  like  his  new  asso 
ciates,  a  native  of  Scotland.  The  new  firm  was  a  suc 
cess  from  the  start,  and  its  business  was  steadily  in 
creased  until  the  establishment  occupied  many  stores  and 
gave  employment  to  some  1,800  hands,  mostly  Scotch.  It 
used  to  be  said  that  it  was  as  good  as  a  trip  across  the 
ocean  to  go  into  this  mammoth  concern,  a  concern  that 
was,  and  is,  conducted  with  Yankee  shrewdness,  tem 
pered  by  Scotch  honesty,  an  invaluable  combination,  and 
hear  the  Doric  spoken  by  the  clerks  and  salesmen  as 
fresh  and  pithy  as  though  they  had  just  come  from  the 
heather.  Thomas  died  in  1885  and  James  in  1895,  and 
both  were  sadly  mourned. 

The  leading  dry  goods  man  in  St.  Louis  is  a  native 
of  Rothesay,  Mr.  D.  Crawford.  A  recent  article  in  The 
Mirror  of  that  city,  says  that  he  settled  there  in  1860  or 
thereabout.  "  Mr.  Crawford's  prosperity,"  says  that  pa 
per,  "  has  grown  with  the  city,  but  he  attributes  his  great 
success  to  Scotch  tenacity  of  purpose,  cash  payments, 
and  printers'  ink.  He  looks  back  with  pride  on  the  days 
of  his  small  beginnings,  and  cherishes  more  than  all  the 
friends  of  these  earlier  days,  when  his  great  '  Broadway 
Bazaar '  was  much  smaller  than  it  now  is,  and  when  its 
business  represented  thousands  where  now  it  runs  into 
millions  of  dollars.  He  has  never  forgotten  his  mother 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       269 

country,  and  no  deserving  indigent  Scot  ever  applies  to 
him  in  vain.  For  the  last  twelve  successive  years  he  has 
been  the  highly-appreciated  President  of  the  St.  Louis 
Caledonian  Society." 

Mining  in  all  its  branches  is  an  industry  in  which  the 
Scots  in  America  have  taken  a  very  prominent  part,  but 
curiously  enough,  miners,  while  hard-working  men,  are 
very  modest  and  seldom  obtrude  themselves  in  print. 
They  make  their  "  pile  "  when  they  can,  but  do  not  care 
to  "  blow  "  about  it,  and  are  content  to  have  the  "  gear  " 
and  leave  the  glory  to  others.  As  a  result,  they  are  diffi 
cult  to  get  information  about,  although  there  is  hardly  a 
mineral  field  on  the  continent  on  which  they  have  not 
been  at  work,  and  if  a  Scotch  tourist  gets  among  the 
placer  mines  of  the  Pacific  slope  he  will  not  need  to  wan 
der  very  far  before  shaking  hands  with  a  countryman. 

One  of  the  most  intelligent  and  successful  miners  Scot 
land  has  sent  to  this  country,  Andrew  Roy,  a  native  of 
Lanarkshire,  was  the  first  State  Inspector  of  Mines  in 
Ohio,  and  the  first  in  the  United  States  outside  of  the 
anthracite  district  of  Pennsylvania.  He  has  been  iden 
tified  with  mining  in  the  State  of  Ohio  for  thirty  years, 
and  has  had  practical  experience  in  other  parts  of  the 
country.  He  is  a  scientific  miner,  a  thoroughly  practical 
geologist,  and  it  was  through  his  exertions  that  the  Min 
ing  School  was  established  in  connection  with  the  Ohio 
State  University.  Mr.  Roy  may,  therefore,  be  fairly  re 
garded  as  a  representative  type  of  the  educated  miner,  and 
one  who  loves  his  business  for  its  own  sake  rather  than 
for  the  mere  consideration  of  the  money  that  may  be  in 
it,  and  that,  after  all,  is  the  highest  sort  of  representative 
any  trade  or  profession  can  have.  The  man  who  merely 
bends  his  energy  to  getting  rich  may  thrive  with  shoddy, 
wooden  nutmegs  or  bogus  clocks,  just  as  the  grocer 
may  thrive  who  carefully  sands  his  sugar,  or  the  milk 
man  who  mathematically  dilutes  the  fluid  he  sells,  or  the 
speculator  who  waters  the  stock  in  which  he  is  inter 
ested.  But  these  things  have  no  real  influence  upon  the 
world.  The  man  who  does  his  work — whatever  that 
work  may  be — honestly  and  thoroughly,  does  something 


270  THE     SCOT    IN    AMERICA. 

that  justifies  his  existence,  that  adds  to  the  wealth  of  the 
world,  and  reflects  honor  on  his  name  after  he  has  passed 
away.  Nay,  honest  work  is  very  often  the  most  endur 
ing  monument  a  man  can  have.  Old  Phyfe,  the  cabinet 
maker,  is  still  remembered  for  the  excellence  of  his  work 
manship,  although  his  hand  has  long  been  at  rest,  while 
hundreds  of  richer  makers  of  shoddy  furniture — furni 
ture  made  to  sell,  and  that  only — have  been  forgotten, 
even  although  during  their  lives  they  loomed  up  much 
more  prominently  in  the  public  eye.  But  their  lives 
were  based  on  shoddy  principles. 

In  the  course  of  an  interesting  letter  to  the  writer  of 
this  book  in  response  to  a  request  for  some  information 
concerning  the  Scotch  miners  in  the  Buckeye  State,  as 
Ohio  is  fondly  called,  Mr.  Roy  said:  "  Curiously 
enough,  the  native  Scotch  have  not  had  a  great  deal  to 
do  with  the  early  development  of  the  mining  industries 
of  this  State.  They  were  the  pioneer  miners  of  Mary 
land  and  of  Illinois  and  other  Western  States,  but  not 
of  Ohio.  The  men  who  might  be  called  the  fathers  of 
the  mining  industries  here  had  in  many  instances  Scotch 
blood  coursing  through  their  veins,  but  they  themselves 
were  born  in  America.  Such  was  the  late  Gov.  David 
Tod,  the  father  of  the  coal  and  iron  industry  of  Ohio, 
whose  grandfather,  as  he  told  me  himself,  came  from 
Edinburgh.  The  late  Mr.  Chisholm  of  Cleveland  was, 
however,  a  native  Scot,  and  his  was  the  greatest  success 
possible,  though  his  field  was  in  manufacturing  rather 
than  in  mining.  In  Southern  Ohio,  John  Campbell,  the 
late  iron  king,  was  of  Scotch  blood  and  descent,  though 
a  native  of  Virginia.  He  was  one  of  the  pioneer  miners 
of  the  Hanging  Rock  region. 

"  The  Hon.  Thomas  Ewing*  a  United  States  Senator 
and  a  Cabinet  officer,  was  another  coal  and  iron  miner  in 
another  part  of  Southern  Ohio.  He,  too,  was  of  Vir 
ginia  birth,  but  a  full-blooded  Scot.  Gen.  George  W. 
McCook,  of  the  family  of  the  '  fighting  McCooks,'  was 
one^>f  the  pioneer  miners  of  Ohio.  I  think  he  was  born 
in  the  State,  but  he  was  a  Scot  to  the  backbone.  We 
have  a  number  of  native  Scots  in  the  coal  and  iron  busi- 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       271 

ness  of  the  State  at  present,  such  as> Alexander  McDon 
ald,  the  millionaire  of  Cincinnati.  He  is  of  Highland 
birth.  The  Hamiltons  of  Columbus,  John  and  John  C. 
and  Gen.  W.  B.,  can  hardly  be  classed  as  pioneers,  but 
rather  as  successful  Scotch  business  men." 

If  we  were  to  look  for  a  Scotch  colony  near  New 
York  we  would  assuredly  go  to  the  Wyoming  Valley, 
where  we  would  find  groups  of  families  as  Scotch  as 
though  they  had  newly  left  Scotland,  speaking  their  na 
tive  Doric  in  all  its  purity,  preserving  Scotch  customs, 
even  to  "  first  fittin'/'  and  rejoicing  in  all  things  Scotch, 
in  the  kirk,  the  slippery  rink,  and  the  pleasant  foregath 
ering  in  Summer  and  Winter  after  the  day's  "  darg  "  is 
done.  Sometimes  we  could  find  so  many  of  one  name 
that  the  different  wearers  of  the  cognomen  are  distin 
guished  by  nicknames — titles  given  without  any  attempt 
at  disparaging  an  individual,  but  bestowed  and  used  for 
convenience  sake,  and  we  would  find  these  Scots  in  all 
sorts  of  positions,  in  the  mines  as  well  as  in  the  ranks  of 
the  local  tradesmen.  One  of  the  most  noted  of  the 
miners  of  the  Wyoming  Valley,  Thomas  Waddell  of 
Pittston,  was  a  fair  type  of  the  rest,  although  he  was 
more  successful  from  a  financial  standpoint  than  most  of 
his  fellow-miners.  But  the  mere  possession  of  money 
made  no  difference  to  "  Tarn,"  as  he  was  generally  called, 
and  he  was  hail  fellow  alike  with  sleek  Senators  and  na 
bobs,  mine  workers,  and  the  boys  of  the  Thistle  Band,  a 
company  of  musicians  that  used  to  wake  the  beautiful 
Wyoming  Valley  with  their  beautiful  rendering  of  Scotch 
music. 

Mr.  Waddell  was  born  near  Edinburgh  in  1827.  In 
1850  he  left  Scotland  to  make  a  home  for  himself  in  this 
country.  He  first  tried  his  fortune  in  Wilkes-Barre.  Be 
ginning  his  American  career  as  a  working  miner,  he 
worked  in  the  coal  shafts  for  a  year  or  two  and  then 
went  to  California  to  try  his  fortune  in  digging  for  gold. 
He  secured  enough  to  give  him  a  working  capital,  and, 
returning  East,  he  bought  a  coal  mine  and  continued  in 
that  business  till  his  death,  at  Pittston,  in  1894.  It  may 
be  worthy  of  mention  that  Mr.  Waddell's  home  town  of 


272  THE     SCOT    IN    AMERICA, 

Pittston  was  the  last  place  in  America  where,  so  far  as 
the  writer's  knowledge  goes,  Allan  Ramsay's  "  Gentle 
Shepherd  "  was  publicly  performed  in  an  American  the 
atre.  That  was  in  1880.  The  piece  was  well  put  upon 
the  stage  and  capably  acted,  and  delighted  a  large  and 
representative  Scotch  audience  which  assembled  to  wit 
ness  it,  and  with  its  aid  to  renew  many  pleasant  mem 
ories  of  auld  lang  syne. 

Weaving,  like  mining,  owes  much  of  its  prominence 
and  perfection  among  American  industries  to  the  Scotch 
operatives  who  carried  their  skill  across  the  Atlantic  and 
exercised  it  all  over  New  England,  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
the  State  of  New  York.  A  fair  example  of  how  a  Scotch 
weaver  can  make  his  mark  in  America  is  found  in  the 
career  of  Samuel  Laurie  of  Auburn,  who  died  in  1895, 
while  on  a  visit,  in  the  hope  of  recovering  his  health,  at 
Hot  Springs,  Ark.  He  was  born  at  Glasgow  in  1834, 
and  learned  his  trade  of  a  weaver  there — the  best  place 
in  the  world  at  that  time  to  learn  weaving  except,  per 
haps,  Paisley.  He  left  Scotland  for  America  in  1856, 
and,  after  working  in  mills  in  many  places,  principally  in 
New  England,  went  to  Auburn  in  1866  to  take  a  minor 
position  in  the  woolen  mills  there.  In  a  short  time  he  was 
superintendent,  and  finally  became  President  of  the  com 
pany.  Air.  Laurie  was  a  thorough  master  of  his  busi 
ness,  an  enthusiast  at  it,  even,  and  was  always  striving 
how  to  effect  improvements  in  the  designs  of  the  goods, 
the  fastness  or  purity  of  the  colors,  or  the  fineness  or 
evenness  of  the  textures.  He  invented  several  arrange 
ments  which  helped  considerably  to  bring  about  these 
improvements  and  to  lower  the  cost  of  production.  He 
had  one  great  ambition — to  place  on  the  American  mar 
ket  tweeds  equal  to  those  produced  at  Bannockburn  or 
Galashiels,  and,  toward  the  end  of  his  business  career,  it 
was  generally  acknowledged  that  he  had  succeeded. 

Business  men,  most  of  them,  whose  lives  are  not  based 
upon  shoddy  foundations  are  full  of  charity.  We  have 
had  several  instances  of  this  in  the  course  of  this  chap 
ter,  but  the  theme  is  so  inexhaustible,  so  full  of  scope  for 
patriotic  pride,  and,  withal,  so  pleasant  and  instructive, 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       273 

that  we  cannot  resist  the  temptation  of  citing  a  few  more 
illustrations  before  closing  this  chapter.  The  philan 
thropic  love-labors  of  that  kindly  son  of  auld  Dunferm- 
line,  Andrew  Carnegie,  in  founding  libraries,  musical 
conservatories,  and  aiding  all  sorts  of  helpful  objects  of 
a  general  nature  that  are  upward  in  their  tendency,  are 
too  well  known  to  need  recital  here.  But  Scottish  phi- 
lanthropists  have  been  in  America  from  an  early  age,  and 
have  invariably  shown  judgment  in  their  gifts.  Take  the 
case  of  James  Lee,  who  was  born  at  St.  Andrews  in  1795, 
and  for  forty  years  prior  to  his  death,  in  1874,  was  a 
merchant  in  New  York  City.  He  was  long  noted  for  the 
warm  interest  he  took  in  the  New  York  Society  Library, 
an  institution  he  assisted  with  his  money,  as  well  as  with 
his  advice  and  business  experience  and  influence.  But 
he  left  a  memorial  of  his  disinterested  patriotism  in  the 
Washington  Monument  that  adorns  Union  Square. 
Few  of  the  thousands  who  pass  that  grand  memorial  of 
the  first  President  of  the  United  States  know  that  its 
ere<-  tion  was  brought  about  mainly  through  the  exer 
tions  of  a  Scottish  citizen,  but  such  was  the  case.  James 
Lee  worked  hard  to  gather  together  the  needed  funds  to 
purchase  the  work,  and  as  the  result  of  innumerable 
calls,  bushels  of  letters,  and  pleadings  of  all  sorts,  he 
eventually  succeeded.  He  used  to  say  that  he  had  less 
trouble  in  getting  subscriptions  from  citizens  of  America 
by  adoption  than  from  those  who  were  citizens  by  right 
of  birth.  One  of  these,  in  declining  Mr.  Lee's  request 
for  a  subscription,  said  grandiloquently:  "Washington, 
Sir,  needs  no  monument,  Sir;  he  is  enshrined  in  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen."  "  Well,"  retorted  Lee,  "  if  he 
is  in  your  heart  he  is  in  a  pretty  tight  place."  Active  as 
an  American  citizen  as  he  was,  however,  Mr.  Lee  was 
noted  for  his  enthusiasm  for  his  native  land,  and  he  affil 
iated  with  the  St.  Andrew's  Society  in  1822,  shortly  after 
settling  in  New  York,  and  retained  his  membership  till 
the  end. 

For  true  philanthropy,  the  name  of  no  Scot  in  Amer 
ica  stands  higher  than  that  of  Archibald  Russell.  His 
father  was  at  one  time  President  of  the  Royal  Society  at 


274  THE     SCOT    IN     AMERICA. 

Edinburgh,  and  Archibald  was  born  in  that  city  in  1811, 
graduating  in  time  from  its  university.  In  1836  he  set 
tled  in  New  York,  and  almost  immediately  after  entered 
upon  that  career  of  kindly  usefulness  which  has  en 
shrined  his  memory  in  the  charitable  annals  of  America's 
commercial  metropolis.  He  founded  the  Five  Points 
Mission,  one  of  the  most  needed,  most  beneficent,  and 
most  practical  charities  in  New  York,  and  aided  in  found 
ing  the  Half  Orphan  Asylum  and  a  dozen  other  institu 
tions.  During  the  civil  war  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Christian  Commission,  whose  noble  work  needs  no  re 
telling  here,  and  even  when  resting  at  his  Summer  home 
in  Ulster  County,  Mr.  Russell  was  always  thinking  upon 
some  scheme  of  kindly  work,  or  putting  such  schemes 
into  execution.  Mr.  Russell  died  in  New  York  in  1871. 

A  kindly  man,  although  of  a  peculiar  temperament, 
but  whose  daily  business  life  was  seldom  unproductive  oi 
some  good  deed  quietly  done,  was  Robert  L.  Maitland, 
whose  death  at  Port  Washington,  N.  J.,  in  1876,  was  a 
surprise  to  his  hosts  of  friends  in  New  York,  although  it 
was  known  to  himself  long  before  the  summons  came 
that  his  life  hung  by  a  more  than  usually  slender  thread. 
Mr.  Maitland  was  born  in  New  York,  but  he  always 
claimed  to  be  of  the  Scottish  race,  and  was  proud  of  it, 
His  father  was  a  native  of  Kirkcudbrightshire,  in  Scot 
land,  and  belonged  to  an  ancient  family,  for  which  a  re 
mote  kinship  was  claimed  with  the  noble  house  of 
Lauderdale.  His  uncle  established  the  firm  of  Maitland, 
Phelps  &  Co.,  already  referred  to.  His  mother  was  a 
daughter  of  Mr.  Robert  Lenox.  His  associations,  there 
fore,  social  as  well  as  business,  were  of  a  character  to 
give  him  a  splendid  start  in  life,  and  no  one  could  have 
used  them  to  better  advantage.  If  we  were  called  upon 
to  name  a  dozen  firms  in  this  city  distinguished  above 
all  others  for  long  standing,  great  energy,  and  enter 
prise,  honorable  principles,  and  a  credit  that  never  was 
doubted  in  the  most  troublous  times,  Messrs.  R.  L. 
Maitland  &  Co.  would  be  one  of  them. 

Mr.  Maitland  was  frequently  impetuous  and  some 
times  imperious,  but  a  good  deal  of  this  might  justly  be 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        275 

attributed  to  the  irritableness  produced  by  a  painful  dis 
ease  from  which  he  was  long"  a  sufferer.  In  private  life 
few  men  were  more  considerate,  gentle,  and  lovable.  He 
was  certainly  strong  in  his  likes  and  dislikes,  but,  his 
confidence  once  secured,  he  was  the  most  faithful  and 
devoted  of  friends.  Like  all  of  his  race  and  name,  he 
loved  to  play  the  part  of  a  country  gentleman,  and  he 
played  it  with  genuine  courteous  hospitality  and  dignity. 
His  establishments  in  town  and  country  were  filled  with 
old  and  faithful  servants — no  slight  proof  of  his  kindness 
and  consideration  as  a  master.  His  contributions  to 
every  meritorious  scheme  of  benevolence  and  religion 
were  all  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  his  great  wealth, 
but  were  always  bestowed  in  the  most  unostentatious 
manner.  Like  his  kinsman,  Mr.  James  Lenox,  he  loved 
to  do  good  by  stealth. 

Business  and  philanthropy  were  also  combined  in  a 
laudable  degree  in  the  career  of  another  Scotsman's  son, 
who,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  career,  inva 
riably  reflected  upon  and  spoke  of  his  Scotch  origin  and 
blood  with  unbounded  enthusiasm.  This  was  John  Tay 
lor  Johnston,  who  was  born  in  New  York  in  1820,  and 
died  in  that  city  in  1893.  He  was  a  son  of  John  John 
ston,  a  native  of  Edinburgh,  who  was  partner  in  the 
once-famous  importing  house  of  Doorman,  Johnston  & 
Co.,  on  Greenwich  Street,  New  York,  mentioned  on  a 
previous  page  in  this  chapter.  While  on  a  visit  to  Edin 
burgh  with  his  parents  in  1832,  John  Taylor  Johnston 
was  sent  to  the  High  School,  where  he  remained  a  year 
and  a  half.  He  then  returned  to  New  York,  and  was 
educated  for  the  law.  He  did  not  take  kindly  to  legal 
work,  however,  and  when  twenty-eight  years  of  age  he 
branched  off  into  railroad  management.  He  began  by 
taking  the  Presidency  of  the  Elizabeth  town  and  Somer- 
ville  Railroad,  then  only  a  few  miles  long  and  struggling 
for  existence,  and  he  steadily  developed  it  until,  under 
its  new  name  of  the  New  Jersey  Central,  it  covered  the 
greater  part  of  the  State.  The  chief  business  feature  of 
the  enterprise  was  the  cultivation  of  the  anthracite  coal 
trade,  and  part  of  Mr.  Johnston's  scheme,  was  the  con- 


276  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

struction  of  a  vast  system  of  wharves,  basins,  and  docks, 
involving  the  reclamation  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Jer 
sey  flats.  In  1877,  however,  before  that  undertaking 
could  be  carried  out,  the  New  Jersey  Central,  in  com 
mon  with  other  railroads  engaged  in  the  same  line  of 
business,  was  overtaken  by  disaster,  and  had  to  go  into 
the  hands  of  a  receiver.  Mr.  Johnston  lost  a  large  por 
tion  of  his  private  fortune  in  trying  to  maintain  its  credit, 
but  ultimately  resigned  the  Presidency,  which  he  had 
held  for  twenty-seven  years.  Mr.  Johnston  took  the 
leading  part,  in  1870,  in  founding  the  Metropolitan  Mu 
seum  of  Art,  and  was  its  President  when  he  died.  He 
contributed  $15,000  to  the  starting  of  the  institution,  and 
collected  personally  in  Europe  a  large  number  of  the 
works  of  art  which  were  first  shown  in  it.  He  was  for 
many  years  an  active  office  bearer  of  the  St.  Andrew's 
Society,  and  was  for  one  year  its  President.  He  was 
also  a  Trustee  of  the  Presbyterian  Hospital,  besides  be 
ing  otherwise  an  extremely  useful  citizen. 

Another  Scotsman's  son  who  has  come  to  the  front  in 
financial  circles,  especially  from  the  manner  in  which  he 
twice  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  financial  end  of  the  Cleve 
land  Administration  by  organizing  syndicates  to  take  up 
its  early  issues  of  bonds,  is  John  A.  Stewart,  President  of 
the  United  States  Trust  Company.  It  is  well  known, 
too,  that  Mr.  Stewart  has  been  liberal  of  his  means  in  a 
quiet,  unobtrusive  way  in  promoting  good  works.  In 
speaking  of  his  work  in  the  bond  syndicate  in  November, 
1894,  "The  New  York  Herald"  remarked:  "  It  is  not 
everybody  who  can  go  around  among  his  friends  and  by 
a  little  persuasive  argument  induce  them  to  form  a  syn 
dicate  which  will  pay  out  $50,000,000  in  gold  at  the  beck 
of  his  finger."  This  was  exactly  what  John  Aiknian 
Stewart  did,  and  the  fact  speaks  volumes  for  the  trust 
reposed  in  his  honesty  and  shrewdness  as  a  financier. 
'*  The  Herald,"  in  further  commenting  on  this  great 
bond  transaction,  gave  the  following  particulars  of  Mr. 
Stewart's  parentage  and  early  career:  "  Mr.  Stewart  first 
saw  the  light  of  day  on  Aug.  26,  1822. 

"  From  the  land'  of  Robert  Burns  came  his  ancestors. 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        277 

His  father  was  born  on  the  Island  of  Lewis,  one  of  the 
Hebrides  group,  on  the  northwest  coast  of  Scotland. 
Coming  to  this  country  when  quite  young,  he  was  a 
ship  carpenter  in  this  city  for  many  years,  then  em 
barked  in  business,  was  for  a  long  while  an  Assessor  for 
what  were  then  the  Twelfth  and  the  Sixteenth  Wards, 
and  was  also  Receiver  of  Taxes.  Mr.  Stewart's  mother 
was  born  in  this  city,  her  father  being  a  Scotchman." 

Perhaps  the  most  conspicuous  example  of  the  influ 
ence  which  Scotsmen  have  exerted  and  are  exerting 
upon  American  progress  is  found  in  the  career  of  John 
S.  Kennedy,  of  New  York,  who  was  born  at  Blantyre, 
Lanarkshire,  (the  birthplace  of  David  Livingstone,)  in 
1830,  and  settled  in  New  York  in  1856. 

During  his  American  business  career  Mr.  Kennedy 
has  been  associated  in  many  of  the  most  important  busi 
ness  interests  of  his  time,  and  railroads,  banks,  and  syn 
dicates  of  all  sorts  have  felt  the  influence  of  his  guidance 
and  judgment.  He  undertook  the  receivership  of  the 
Central  Railroad  of  New  Jersey  when  that  road  was 
practically  bankrupt,  and  when  he  retired  he  handed  it 
over  to  its  present  o\vners  as  a  paying  concern.  His 
connection  with  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railroad  is  well 
known,  but  few  can  appreciate  the  amount  of  work  he 
did  as  Vice  President  and  Director  of  the  St.  Paul,  Min 
neapolis  and  Manitoba  Railroad  Company,  or  as  Vice 
President  of  the  Indianapolis,  Cincinnati  and  Lafayette 
Railroad  Company,  or  as  President  of  the  International 
and  Great  Northern  Railroad  Company  of  Texas.  Even 
now  that  he  is  supposed  to  be  retired  from  business,  and 
enjoying  his  otiinn  cum  dignitatc,  he  is  trustee  under  the 
mortgages  of  various  railroads  to  an  amount  approach 
ing  $100,000,000,  besides  being  trustee  or  executor  on 
many  private  estates  involving  many  millions  more,  a 
Director  of  the  National  Bank  of  Commerce,  the  Man 
hattan  Company's  Bank,  the  Central  Trust  Company, 
the  United  States  Trust  Company,  the  Title  Guarantee 
and  Trust  Company,  the  New  York,  Chicago  and  St. 
Louis,  and  several  other  railroad  companies,  and  many 
lesser  concerns. 


278  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

In  the  affairs  of  the  Presbyterian  Hospital  and  of  the 
Lenox  Library,  of  both  of  which  he  is  President,  Mr. 
Kennedy  takes  more  than  ordinary  interest.  No  one 
knows  the  extent  of  his  gifts  to  the  hospital,  and  to  the 
library  he  is  constantly  giving.  He  is  also  an  ex-Presi 
dent  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society,  a  Vice  President  of 
the  New  York  Historical  Society,  a  Trustee  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  and  of  many  other  of  the 
public  institutions  of  which  New  York  is  proud.  In  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church  (Dr.  John  Hall's) 
Mr.  Kennedy  has  long  been  a  Trustee,  and  in  several 
of  the  boards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  he  is  an  active 
office  holder. 

Two  of  his  offices,  and  of  both  of  which  he  is  peculiarly 
proud,  are  those  of  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
the  American  Bible  House  and  of  Robert  College,  both 
at  Constantinople — institutions  which  he  visited  when 
returning  from  a  tour  through  Egypt  and  the  Holy  Land, 
a  few  years  ago,  and  again  in  1894.  Mr.  Kennedy's 
latest  gift  to  New  York  is  the  Public  Charities  Building, 
at  the  corner  of  Fourth  Avenue  and  Twenty-second 
Street,  which  cost  about  three-quarters  of  a  million  oi 
dollars,  and  brings  the  various  public  charities  of  the  city 
under  one  roof. 

In  this  chapter  we  have  said  nothing  of  the  Scot  in 
Canada,  for  the  reasons  elsewhere  stated,  and  because 
to  cross  the  St.  Lawrence  in  search  of  illustrations  would 
simply  mean  to  confront  the  entire  business  interests  of 
the  Dominion.  We  have,  however,  selected  a  few 
names,  but  merely  at  random,  and  as  much  for  the  sake 
of  substantiating  this  remark  as  for  any  other  purpose. 

A  prominent  type  of  a  Scottish  merchant  in  Canada 
was  the  Hon.  John  Macdonald,  who  died  at  Toronto 
early  in  1890.  He  was  born  in  Perthshire  in  1824.  His 
father,  who  was  a  native  of  Knockoilum,  in  Stratherrick, 
Tnverness-shire,  was  a  Sergeant  in  the  Ninety-third 
Highlanders.  He  accompanied  his  regiment  to  Canada 
in  1837  and  took  his  son  along  with  him,  the  lad's 
mother  having-  died  the  day  before  the  vessel  sailed. 
John  received  his  education  at  Dalhousie  College,  Hali-. 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.       279 

fax,  and  then  went  to  Toronto.  His  first  connection  in 
business  was  as  a  clerk  in,  a  store  at  Gananoque,  and  in 
1849  ne  started  in  for  himself  and  founded  the  firm 
which  afterward  became  noted  throughout  Canada  as 
that  of  John  Macdonald  &  Co.,  wholesale  dry  goods 
dealers  and  importers.  Its  credit  was  unlimited,  its 
warerooms  were  magnificent,  and  the  Toronto  Scots 
pointed  to  the  imposing  pile  as  evidence  of  what  Scotch 
grit  can  accomplish  in  Canada.  But  Mr.  Macdonald 
was  more  than  a  mere  merchant.  He  was  a  philan 
thropist,  a  patriot,  and  a  public-spirited  citizen.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Canadian  House  of  Commons  and 
afterward  one  of  the  Senators  of  the  Dominion.  In 
church  and  temperance  work  he  was  most  assiduous, 
and  in  the  Toronto  School  Board,  in  the  university, 
and  other  educational  institutions  he  was  prominently 
identified  for  years.  To  the  young  men  in  his  establish 
ment  he  was  more  than  an  employer,  and  his  will  showed 
that  they  were  in  his  thoughts  when  they  little  imagined 
it.  The  life  of  such  a  man  is  blessed  not  only  to  himself, 
but  to  the  community  in  which  he  dwells,  and  to  every 
one  who  is  directly  or  indirectly  brought  under  its  influ 
ence,  and  it  may  well  be  imagined  what  regret  was  felt 
in  Toronto  when  it  was  known  that  this  career  of  use 
fulness  and  beneficence  was  closed. 

The  annals  of  the  Scot  in  Montreal  would  probably 
keep  us,  were  they  studied,  almost  always  closer  to  the 
top  of  the  tree  in  all  departments  of  commerce,  indus 
try  and  finance  than  those  of  our  countrymen  in  any 
other  city  on  the  American  Continent.  Take  as  a  soli 
tary  case  the  career  of  Sir  Donald  A.  Smith,  whose  gifts 
to  the  Victoria  Hospital  in  Montreal  alone  have  amount 
ed  to  a  quarter  of  a  million  sterling.  He  is  a  native  of 
Morayshire,  and  went  out  to  Canada  while  a  youth  and 
entered  the  service  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 
Rapidly  rising  to  the  head  of  that  corporation,  he  was 
the  last  resident  Governor  of  that  body  as  a  governing 
corporation.  During  Riel's  rebellion  he  was  Special 
Commissioner  in  the  Red  River  Settlements,  and  was 
thanked  by  the  Governor  General  of  Canada  for  his 


280  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

many  services.  Sir  Donald  has  taken  a  foremost  part  in 
such  large  commercial  undertakings  as  the  Canadian 
Pacific  Railway  and  the  Bank  of  Montreal,  of  which  he 
is  President.  It  was  he  who  drove  in  the  last  spike  of 
the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  nearly  twelve  years  ago,  at 
Craigellachie,  in  the  Eagle  Pass.  In  Canada  his  name 
is  a  household  word,  while  in  Scotland,  as  the  proprietor 
of  the  historic  estate  of  Glencoe,  he  occupies  a  promi 
nent  place  among  the  county  magnates  of  Argyllshire. 

One  more  illustration,  and  then  we  leave  this  long  and 
honorable  record.  It  is  that  of  William  Walker,  who, 
after  a  stirring  and  honorable  career  as  a  merchant  and 
statesman,  died  at  Quebec,  in  1863.  He  left  Scotland  in 
1815,  when  twenty-two  years  old,  and  went  at  once  to 
Montreal,  where  he  became  a  partner  in  the  firm  of  For- 
syth,  Richardson  &  Co.  of  Montreal,  and  Forsyth, 
Walker  &  Co.  of  Quebec.  He  was  part  owner  of  the 
steamer  Royal  William,  the  first  steam  vessel  that 
crossed  the  Atlantic  from  British  North  America.  He 
was  first  President  of  the  Quebec  and  Riviere  du  Loup 
Railroad  Company,  President  of  the  Quebec  Board  of 
Trade,  and  a  Director  in  nearly  all  the  financial  institu 
tions  of  that  ancient  city.  He  wras  a  bit  of  a  soldier,  too, 
and  raised  and  commanded  the  Quebec  Volunteer  Rifle 
Corps.  But,  with  all  these  occupations,  he  attended 
closely  to  his  main  business,  and  in  1848  was  enabled  to 
retire  with  a  handsome  fortune.  In  1839  he  was  ap 
pointed  a  life  member  of  the  Legislative  Council  by 
royal  mandate,  and  in  that  capacity  did  much  good  work 
for  the  Dominion,  as  well  as  for  his  own  province  ot 
Quebec.  His  later  interest,  however,  centred  in  the 
University  of  Bishop's  College,  Lennoxville,  of  which 
he  was  the  first  Chancellor,  and  his  benefactions  to  it, 
as  well  as  his  influential  labors,  were  such  as  to  stamp 
him  as  one  of  the  most  thoughtful  workers  on  behalf  of 
higher  education  in  Canada. 

We  would  fain  dwell  yet  a  while  across  the  St.  Law 
rence,  but  the  work  has  been  done  already  by  loving 
hands,  and  we  have  now  lingered  too  long  with  this 
branch  of  our  theme — not  too  long  to  exhaust  it,  but 


MERCHANTS     AND     MUNICIPAL     BUILDERS.        281 

longer  than  was  necessary  to  demonstrate  how  much 
America  owes  to  the  Scottish  merchants  who  threw  in 
their  lot  with  the  New  World. 

In  Glasgow  they  generally  estimate  the  good  qualities 
of  a  man  by  figuring  up  how  much  he  is  worth.  That 
basis  of  merit  we  have  generally  avoided  in  the  preceding 
pages.  But  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  say  that  the 
fortune  of  Mr.  George  Smith,  the  pioneer  Chicago  banker 
already  mentioned,  is  now  believed  to  amount  to  about 
$50,000,000.  With  it  he  is  doing  much  practical  good, 
for,  besides  founding  several  bursaries  in  the  schools  of 
Old  Deer,  he  gave  $5,000  last  year  to  Aberdeen  Uni 
versity  towards  its  new  buildings. 

When  Alexander  Stuart  of  New  York  died  he  be 
queathed  his  entire  estate,  valued  at  $2,000,000,  to  his 
brother,  Robert  L.  Stuart,  his  sole  legatee.  When,  later, 
Robert  L.  died,  he  left  his  fortune,  estimated  at  over 
$5,000,000,  to  his  wrife.  In  spite  of  her  many  benefac 
tions,  Mrs.  R.  L.  Stuart  left  $5,000,000  when  she  died, 
nine  years  after  her  husband.  After  making  liberal  pro 
visions  for  distant  relatives  and  a  few  personal  friends, 
she  bequeathed  nearly  $4,500,000  to  religious,  benevolent, 
and  educational  institutions. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

EDUCATORS. 

IF  a  Scot  were  asked  in  what  direction  the  influence 
of  his  native  land  was  most  plainly  and  characteristically 
to  be  seen  in  America,  he  would  undoubtedly  answer  in 
the  direction  of  education.  In  surveying  the  entire  scho 
lastic  field — primary,  grammar,  and  collegiate — in 
America,  we  are  struck  by  the  fact  that  the  underlying 
theory  of  the  whole  is  that  promulgated  by  John  Knox 
when  he  proposed  an  ideal  system  for  Scotland,  but  was 
defeated  by  the  greed  and  treachery  of  the  Scottish  no 
bility — including  even  those  who  were  with  him  in  the 
struggle  against  the  old  Church.  In  brief,  his  system 
called  for  at  least  one  grammar  school  in  every  parish, 
a  burgh  or  high  school  and,  where  possible,  a  collegiate 
institution  in  everyj£ryvji>_aniL<kJi^iversity  in  the  princi 
pal  cities,  besides  "  bairn  schules^.^  in  connection  with 
each  kirk.  HisTh^ory~ls~~tEat~the  education  of  the 
youth  was  part  of  the  legitimate  business  of  every  State, 
and  his  wish  was  that  that  education  should  be  as  liberal 
as  possible.  Education,  the  education  of  the  masses, 
has  always  been  since  Knox's  time  one  of  the  ruling 
principles  of  Scottish  life.  It  was  carefully  fostered  by 
the  Church;  the  management  of  the  schools  long  formed 
part  of  the  most  important  business  of  every  General 
Assembly,  and  their  visitation  and  supervision  were  re 
garded  as  not  the  least  among  the  duties  of  the  clergy. 
It  was  only  within  a  comparatively  recent  period  in 
Scotland  that  the  State  stepped  to  the  front  in  educa 
tional  matters,  and  the  Church  gradually  released  its 
hold,  until  now  the  entire  management,  even  of  the  uni 
versities,  is  professedly  secular.  This  change— this  sep- 
282 


EDUCATORS.  283 

aration  of  education  from  religion — it  has  always  ap 
peared  to  us,  is  one  of  the  things  that  the  Old  Country 
has  learned  from  America,  where  scholastic  training 
from  the  beginning  of  the  national  history  of  the  United 
States  has  been  secular,  except  where  particular  re 
ligions  have  founded  schools  or  colleges  of  their  own. 

In  speaking  of  the  Church  having  control  of  the 
schools  in  Scotland,  however,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  that  control  sprang  from  a  different  source  from 
that  which  actuates  most  Churches  in  educational  mat 
ters.  There  never  was,  there  never  will  be,  a  more  per 
fect  system  of  republican  government,  a  more  complete 
democracy,  than  that  devised  for  the  Kirk  by  John  Knox 
and  his  associates.  In  that  system  the  basis  of  every 
thing  was  the  Kirk  meeting,  in  which  every  one,  every 
head  of  a  family,  had  a  voice  and  a  vote ;  from  that  pop 
ular  meeting  came  the  session,  from  the  session  the 
Presbytery,  from  the  Presbytery  the  Synod,  from  the 
Synod  the  General  Assembly.  The  last  being  thor 
oughly  representative  in  its  complexion,  was  for  many 
generations  the  real  parliament  of  the  nation,  and  thus  it 
was  the  voice  of  the  Scottish  people  acting  through  their 
regularly  and  honestly  chosen  delegates  that  inspired  the 
zeal  for  the  cause  of  education  throughout  the  country 
and  maintained  it. 

Although  the  educational  system  of  the  United  States, 
the  system  made  compulsory  by  State  laws,  is  as  per 
fectly  secular  as  can  be  devised,  yet  it  should  be  remem 
bered  that  the  earliest  American  teachers  were  either 
the  clergy  or  that  the  early  schools  were  founded  under 
the  auspices  of  some  Church.  The  Presbyterian,  as  the 
representative  Scotch  denomination,  for  a  long  time  was 
as  active  in  establishing  schools  as  churches.  Thus,  in 
the  early  history  of  the  Carolinas,  we  find  that  one  Synod 
admonished  all  the  Presbyteries  under  its  control  "  to 
establish  within  their  respective  bounds  one  or  more 
grammar  schools,  except  where  such  schools  are  already 
established,"  and  the  early  Presbyterian  records  all  over 
the  Colonial  settlements  are  full  of  such  references,  where 
the  records  are  found  to  exist.  One  of  the  most  famous 


284  THE     SCOT    IN    AMERICA. 

of  the  early  educational  institutions  in  the  Carolinas  was 
the  Innis  Academy,  founded  in  Wilmington  by  Col. 
James  Innis,  a  native  of  Dunse,  who  incorporated  the 
school  in  1783.  He  had  been  an  officer  in  the  British 
Army,  and  distinguished  himself  in  the  expedition 
against  Carthagena,  in  South  America.  The  University 
of  North  Carolina,  too,  was  established  in  1795  by  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Caldwell,  an  educational  pioneer  of  Scotch 
and  French  descent.  Before  that,  however,  in  1685,  the 
Rev.  James  Blair,  a  Scotch  missionary,  founded  Will 
iam  and  Mary  College,  in  Virginia,  the  most  ancient  ot 
the  American  colleges,  and  which  still  carries  on  its  good 
work  to  the  present  day,  and  we  have  seen  in  the  course 
of  this  work,  by  the  labors  at  Princeton  of  Witherspoon 
and  other  early  Scotch  teachers,  how  active  the  pioneer 
Scots  in  America  were  in  the  cause  of  higher  education. 
Among  the  most  prominent  of  the  early  Scotch  teach 
ers,  whose  life  story  has  been  preserved  to  us  mainly  be 
cause  he  became  as  active  as  a  patriot  and  a  legislator  as 
an  educator  in  his  adopted  country,  was  jr'eter  Wilson,  a 
native  of  the  little  parish  of  Ordiquhill,  Banfrshire.  He 
was  born  there  in  1744,  and,  after  attending  Aberdeen 
University  for  several  sessions — long  enough  to  grad 
uate,  for  in  Scotland  they  used  to  enter  college  at  an 
age  when  the  children  of  the  present  day  are  only  half 
way  through  the  grammar  schools — he  left  Scotland 
and  landed  in  New  York,  in  1763.  Wilson  soon  re 
ceived  an  appointment  as  a  teacher  in  Hackensack 
Academy,  New  Jersey,  and  served  there  as  Principal  for 
many  years.  His  labors  appear  to  have  been  interrupted 
by  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  the  movement  for  inde 
pendence  found  in  him  one  of  its  most  devoted  ad 
herents  and  promoters.  From  1777  to  1783  he  served  in 
the  New  Jersey  Legislature,  and  afterward  took  a  prom 
inent  and  exceedingly  useful  part  in  codifying  and  revis 
ing  the  laws  of  that  State.  In  1789  he  accepted  the  pro 
fessorship  of  Greek  and  Latin  in  Columbia  College,  and 
remained  there  till  1792,  when  he  resigned  to  become 
Principal  of  Erasmus  Hall  Academy,  Flatbush,  N.  Y. 
That  office  he  vacated  in  1797,  when  he  returned  to  Co- 


EDUCATORS.  285 

lumbia  College  as  Professor  of  Greek  and  Latin  and  of 
Greek  Antiquities,  and  taught  until  1820,  when  he  re- 
iired  on  a  pension.  He  died  five  years  later,  at  New 
Barbados,  N.  J.,  and  was  buried  in  Hackensack  Church 
yard,  where  a  stone  was  erected  to  his  memory  on  which 
his  career  was  summed  up  in  the  words:  "A  zealous 
and  successful  patriot  and  Christian,  and  exemplary  in 
all  the  public,  social,  and  domestic  relations  which  he 
sustained."  Dr.  Wilson  published  several  textbooks, 
each  of  which  bore  evidence  to  his  scholarship,  but  they 
are  now  forgotten,  for  old  textbooks,  like  old  almanacs, 
seem  to  be  neglected  and  cast  aside  as  soon  as  they 
have  served  their  day. 

A  representative  Scot,  whose  life  story,  however,  is 
rather  a  painful  one,  was  James  Hardie,  an  Aberdonian 
and  a  graduate  of  Marischal  College,  Aberdeen.  He 
was  born  in  1750,  and  after  graduation  became  an  in 
mate  of  the  domestic  circle  of  Prof.  James  Beattie  ("  the 
Poet  of  Truth,"  as  he  has  been  called,)  as  secretary,  or 
tutor,  or  both.  Beattie  possessed  influence  enough  and 
heart  enough  to  have  advanced  his  protege's  fortunes  in 
a  material  way,  but  there  were  several  matters  which 
caused  the  philosopher  and  poet  to  believe  that  Hardie's 
interests  would  be  best  served  by  his  removal  from  his 
associates  and  accustomed  haunts,  and  by  beginning  life 
anew  in  a  far  country.  He,  therefore,  advised  him  to 
emigrate  to  America,  and  the  advice  was  taken.  Hardie 
settled  in  New  York,  and  from  1787  till  1790  was  em 
ployed  as  a  tutor  in  Columbia  College.  He  then  lost 
his  employment  on  account  of  his  dissipated  habits,  for 
he  did  not  "  mend  his  ways  "  in  the  new  land,  and,  after 
drifting  aimlessly  along  in  the  current  of  life  for  several 
years,  picking  up  a  precarious  livelihood  one  way  and 
another,  he  obtained  a  minor  position  in  connection 
with  one  of  the  city  departments.  His  salary  was  small, 
barely  enough  to  keep  body  and  soul  together,  and  he 
eked  it  out  by  doing  hack  work  for  the  publishers  when 
he  got  the  opportunity.  In  this  way  he  became  the  au 
thor  of  quite  a  number  of  books,  the  most  curious  of 
which  are  "  An  Account  of  the  Yellow  Fever  in  New 


286  <JTHE^SCOT     IN  J AMERICA. 

York,"  (1822,)  and  a  descriptive  account  of  the  same 
city,  issued  the  same  year.  He  also  completed  a  Bio 
graphical  Dictionary,  which  was  issued  in  1830,  and 
proved  that  he  could  be  industrious  and  painstaking1 
when  he  liked.  Hardie  died  in  New  York,  in  1832,  leav 
ing  behind  him  nothing  of  real  value  to  the  world  be 
yond  the  awful  example  of  a  richly  endowed  life  wasted. 
We  get  a  much  more  noble  illustration  of  the  Scot 
abroad  in  studying  the  career  of  another  Aberdonian, 
John  Kriih.  I'.orn  a!  Achlossan,  in  [763,  he  graduated 
~Trom  Aberdeen  University  in  1781,  and  soon  after,  be 
fore  he  had  even  attained  full  legal  age,  was  admitted  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh.  In  his 
twentieth  year  he  emigrated,  and,  after  spending  a  year 
or  two  in  Virginia,  finally  settled  in  New  York.  He  se 
cured  employment  as  a  teacher  in  Columbia  College, 
and  soon  after  became  one  of  the  Faculty  of  that  insti 
tution  by  accepting  the  Chair  of  Mathematics.  In  1795 
he  was  transferred  to  the  Chair  of  Geography,  History, 
and  Chronology,  and  proved  a  most  devoted  teacher. 
But  he  was  more  than  a  teacher.  He  was  a  public-spir 
ited  citizen,  and  took  an  active  interest  in  matters  far 
from  akin  to  his  profession.  For  instance,  the  desira 
bility  of  a  system  of  internal  waterways  through  the 
State  of  New  York,  which  was  first  suggested  by  the  old 
Scotch  Governor,  Cadwallader  Golden,  was  a  burning 
question  early  in  the  century.  The  problem  of  the  feasi 
bility  of  such  waterways  was  keenly  debated,  and  De 
Witt  Clinton,  their  great  and  unswerving  advocate, 
found  no  more  logical,  determined,  or  efficient  sup 
porter  than  Prof.  John  Keith.  The  latter  readily  fore 
saw  the  immense  advantage  these  waterways  would  be, 
not  merely  to  the  State,  but  to  the  entire  continent,  for 
he  believed  they  could  be  connected  so  as  to  open  up 
communication  with  the  Mississippi.  He  advocated 
their  construction  as  a  matter  of  practical  necessity,  and 
his  position  as  a  professor  in  Columbia  College  gave 
great  weight  to  his  words.  In  1810  he  visited  Lake  Erie 
to  examine  into  the  feasibility  of  the  proposed  Erie  Ca 
nal,  and  made  private  surveys  and  calculations,  with  the 


EDUCATORS.  287 

result  that  he  fully  demonstrated  the  entire  practicabil 
ity  of  the  waterway  long  before  any  authoritative  survey 
had  passed  judgment  upon  the  scheme.  It  is  a  pity  that 
he  was  not  spared  to  see  the  great  work  fairly  entered 
upon,  but  he  died  in  1812,  when  the  whole  scheme  was 
in  that  stage  of  all  great  American  measures  when  it  was 
simply  a  football  for  politicians. 

Among  the  names  of  the  early  professors  in  Princeton 
College  none  is  more  highly  cherished  than  that  of  John 
Maclean,  who  became  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Nat 
ural  History  in  that  young  institution  in  1795,  the  year 
after  President  Witherspoon  had  passed  to  the  rest  he 
had  craved  and  the  reward  he  had  earned,  and  been  suc 
ceeded  by  his  son-in-law,  President;  Stanhope  Smith. 
Dr.  Maclean  was  born  at  Glasgow  in  1771,  and  studied 
medicine  in  Edinburgh,  London,  Glasgow,  and  Paris. 
His  travels  and  reading,  and  his  own  personal  observa 
tion  of  European  Governments,  had  made  him  become 
a  thorough  believer  in  a  republican  form  of  govern 
ment,  and  led  him,  when  his  studies  were  completed,  to 
throw  in  his  lot  with  the  United  States.  He  settled  in 
Princeton  in  1791,  and,  with  the  encouragement  of  Dr. 
Witherspoon  and  the  then  limited  Faculty,  commenced 
lecturing  on  chemistry  before  becoming  a  member  of 
the  professorial  staff.  He  continued  to  fill  a  chair  in 
Princeton  till  1812,  when  he  resigned  to  accept  the  Chair 
of  Natural  Philosophy  and  Chemistry  in  William  and 
Mary  College.  That  post  he  resigned  in  the  course  of  a 
year  on  account  of  ill-health,  and  he  died  in  1814.  His 
memoir  was  written  by  his  son,  John  Maclean,  who  was 
born  at  Princeton,  in  1798,  and  graduated  from  the  col 
lege  there:  in  1816.  The  story  of  this  man's  life  was 
bound  up  with  that  of  the  college  of  New  Jersey,  and  to 
his  enthusiasm  and  learning,  as  well  as  to  his  industry 
as  a  professor  and  executive  ability  as  its  President,  it 
owed  much  of  its  renown  as  a  seat  of  learning.  He  be 
came  President  in  1854,  and  continued  to  fill  the  office 
until  1868,  when  he  resigned  the  dignity  into  the  hands 
of  Prof.  McCosh,  but  the  remaining  years  during  which 
his  life  was  prolonged  (he  died  in  1886)  were  devoted  to 


288  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

advocating1  the  interests  of  the  college  in  every  way  that 
lay  in  his  power.  President  Maclean's  name  is  yet  one 
of  the  most  honored  on  the  roll  of  Princeton's  teachers. 

Another  of  the  early  professors  of  Princeton  of  whom 
mention  might  be  made  was  Walter  Minto,  who  was 
born  at  Coldingham  in  1753,  and  after  graduating  from 
Edinburgh  University  became  tutor  in  the  family  of 
George  Johnstone,  once  Governor  of  West  Florida,  (see 
page  80,)  and  traveled  with  his  charges  over  the  Con 
tinent  of  Europe.  When  that  position  could  no  longer 
be  retained,  Minto  became  a  private  tutor  of  mathemat 
ics  in  Edinburgh,  but  his  prospects  were  not  inviting, 
and  he  emigrated  in  1786,  hoping  to  find  some  oppor 
tunity  in  the  New  World.  A  year  later  he  was  appoint 
ed  to  the  Chair  of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy 
in  Princeton,  and  filled  that  position  with  much  bril 
liancy  until  his  death,  in  1796.  Professor  Minto  received 
in  1787  the  degree  of  LL.  D.  from  Aberdeen  Univer 
sity,  and  was  the  author  of  several  interesting  works, 
the  best  remembered  of  which  is  "  An  Account  of  the 
Life  and  Writings  of  John  Napier  of  Merchiston," 
which  was  published  in  1787,  and  professed  to  be  writ 
ten  in  conjunction  with  Lord  Buchan,  a  celebrated  ama 
teur  scientist  and  would-be  patron  of  learning  of  the 
time. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  Scotch  found 
er  of  William  and  Mary  College.  But  many  more 
Scotch  founders  of  institutions  devoted  to  higher  educa 
tion  could  readily  be  named.  Dalhousie  College,  in 
Halifax,  was  organized  mainly  through  the  exertions  of 
one  of  the  holders  of  that  peerage,  and  Morrin  College, 
Quebec,  was  founded  by  a  native  of  Dumfries-shire,  who 
had  long  practiced  medicine  in  that  historic  city.  Bishop 
John  McLean  of  Saskatchewan,  a  native  of  Portree, 
founded  Emmanuel  College,  of  which  he  became  War 
den,  and  held  that  office,  as  well  as  its  Chair  of  Divinity, 
at  his  death,  in  1886. 

Judging  by  results,  one  of  the  most  noteworthy,  if  not 
the  most  noteworthy,  of  Scottish  college  founders  was 
James  McGULoTMontreal,  to  whose  wise  philanthropy 


EDUCATORS.  939 

that  city  owes  the  great  seat  of  learning  which  bears 
his  name  and  of  which  it  is  so  justly  proud.  McGill  was 
born  at  Glasgow  in  1744.  After  settling  in  Canada,  he 
engaged  in  the  fur  trade  for  a  time,  but  afterward  made 
his  home  in  Montreal,  where  he  entered  into  business  as 
a  merchant.  He  was  successful  from  the  start,  and 
quickly  won  a  large  fortune.  For  several  years  he  rep 
resented  Montreal  in  the  Parliament  of  Lower  Canada, 
and  became  a  member  of  the  Legislative  and  Executive 
Councils.  His.  whole  life  was  an  example  of  patriotism, 
and  was  devoted  to  the  advancement  of  the  highest  in 
terests  of  the  city  in  which  he  had  his  home,  and  in 
which  he  had  risen  to  the  most  honorable  eminence. 
Connected  by  marriage  with,  one  of  the  most  aristocratic 
of  the  old  French  families  in  the  city,  he  had  the  social 
entree  to  both  the  English  and  French  speaking  circles, 
and  was  held  in  the  highest  esteem  in  these  exclusive 
sets,  as  well  as  by  all  classes  in  the  community.  His  pa 
triotic  instincts  even  induced  him  to  apply  himself  to 
military  matters.  He  became  an  officer  in  the  militia 
service,  and  in  the  War  of  1812  rose  to  the  rank  of  Brig 
adier  General.  Throughout  his  life,  Mr.  McGill  was 
prominent  in  Montreal  for  his  charitable  gifts.  He  was 
noted  for  his  practical  ideas  in  connection  with  his  giv 
ing,  but  the  most  conspicuous  proof  of  this  was  given 
when,  after  his  death,  on  Dec.  19,  1813,  it  was  found 
that  he  had  bequeathed  over  £30,000  in  property  and 
i  10,000  in  cash  for  the  foundation  of  a  great  university 
in  Montreal.  The  bequest  was  not  at  once  made  avail 
able,  for  litigation — that  bane  of  will-making  all  over 
America,  and  which  has  so  often  upset  from  trivial 
causes  many  kindly  intentions — -interfered,  and  it  was 
not  until  1821  that  the  obstacles  \vere  cleared  away  and 
the  institution  established,  with  full  university  powers, 
by  royal  charter.  The  real  estate  left  by  Mr.  McGill 
steadily  continued  to  increase  in  value,  and  when  the 
magnificent  mission  of  the  institution  began  to  become 
apparent,  many  of  Montreal's  citizens  liberally  contrib 
uted  to  its  resources,  either  by  contributions  or  be 
quests.  Thus,  Miss  Barbara  Scott  bequeathed  $30,000 


290  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

for  a  Chair  of  Civil  Engineering-,  Major  Mills  $42,000 
for  a  Chair  of  Classics,  ivlr.  David  Greenshields  $40,000 
for  a  Chair  of  Chemistry,  and  Mrs.  Andrew  Stewart 
$25,000  for  a  Chair  of  Law.  Writing  in  1884,  Mr.  S.  E. 
Dawson  said :  "  The  latest  large  benefaction  which  it 
has  received  is  the  Peter  Redpath  Museum,  which  was 
erected  by  the  Scot  whose  name  it  bears  at  a  cost  of 
about  $120,000,  and  contains  very  valuable  collections, 
more  especially  in  geology  and  mineralogy.  The  uni 
versity  has  four  faculties — of  Arts,  Applied  Science, 
Medicine,  and  Law.  Being  non-denominational,  it  has 
no  theological  faculty,  but  it  offers  advantageous  terms 
of  affiliation  to  theological  colleges,  whereby  their  stu 
dents  can  have  the  benefits  of  its  classes  and  degrees, 
and  it  has  already  four  such  colleges,  representing  four 
of  the  leading  Protestant  denominations.  *  *  *  Its 
buildings  are  pleasantly  situated  in  grounds  laid  out  in 
walks  and  ornamented  with  trees  at  the  foot  of  the 
Montreal  Mountain,  and,  though  most  of  them  are  un 
pretending  in  exterior,  they  are  substantially  built  of 
stone  and  are  well  adapted  for  the  purposes  of  education. 
It  has  an  excellent  philosophical  apparatus  and  collec 
tions  of  models  in  mining  and  engineering,  and  also 
good  chemical  and  physiological  laboratories.  It  has  a 
library  of  25,000  volumes,  in  addition  to  its  medical 
library,  and,  though  these  libraries  are  not  large,  they 
include  an  unusually  choice  and  valuable  selection  of 
books.  Though  the  university  has  existed  since  1821,  and 
its  endowment  since  1813,  its  actual  history  as  an  im 
portant  educational  institution  dates  from  the  amend 
ment  of  its  charter  and  the  reorganization,  of  its  general 
body  in  1852.  It  is  thus  a  comparatively  new  institu 
tion,  and  is,  perhaps,  to  be  judged  rather  by  indications 
of  vitality  and  growth  which  it  presents  rather  than  by 
its  past  results.  It  has,  however,  already  more  than 
1,200  graduates,  many  of  them  occupying  important 
public  positions  in  Canada  and  elsewhere." 

Among  the  colleges  affiliated  with  McGill  University 
are  Morrin  College,  of  which  mention  has  already  been 
made,  and  the  Presbyterian  College  of  Montreal.  This 


EDUCATORS.  291 

latter  institution  was  founded  in  1865  for  the  training  of 
ministers  and  missionaries  in  connection  with  the  Pres 
byterian  Church  in  Canada.  Its  origin  was  very  hum 
ble,  but  in  1893  its  endowment  was  valued  at  $16,000,  it 
owned  property  worth  $225,000,  and  its  annual  income 
was  $12,600.  "  The  college,"  according  to  Mr.  Dawson, 
"  has  found  many  generous  benefactors.  Among  them 
are  Mrs.  Redpath,  who  endowed  one  of  the  chairs  with 
$20,000,  and  the  late  Mr.  Edward  Mackay,  who  gave 
$40,000  to  the  endowment  in  his  lifetime.  The  sum  of 
$10,000  was  bequeathed  by  Mr.  Joseph  Mackay  for  the 
same  purpose." 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  amount  of  good,  not 
merely  in  the  education  of  young'  men,  but  in  the  cause 
of  patriotism  of  the  purest  sort,  that  year  after  year  is  ac 
complished  by  the  single  agency  begun  by  the  thought 
ful  bequest  of  James  McGill.  Such  institutions  stand  for 
much  more  in  a  community  than  merely  advanced  schools 
or  degree-conferring  establishments.  They  foster  a  na 
tional  spirit  much  more  potent  and  far-reaching  than 
a  standing-  army  and  they  develop  a  sentiment  of  pride 
in  the  present  progress  toward  nationality  and  hope  for 
its  perfect  realization  in  the  near  future.  Without  such 
institutions  as  McGill  University,  Toronto  University, 
Knox  College,  and  the  other  institutions  of  higher  edu 
cation  with  which  Canada  is  so  plentifully  supplied,  it 
would  still  be  in  the  colonial  stage.  With  them  it  is  a 
nation  in  all  but  in  name,  and  that  name  will  undoubt 
edly  be  willingly  given  to  it  as  soon  as  its  races  become 
a  little  more  blended  together,  if  the  sentiment  of  the 
nation  does  not  induce  it  to  remain,  as  now,  an  integral 
and  honored  factor  in  the  British  Empire.  No  one  who 
knows  Canada  believes  it  will  ever  consent  to  be  oblit 
erated  by  annexation. 

While  we  are  across  the  border  and  dealing  with  col 
leges  founded  there  by  Scotch  benefactors,  it  may  not 
be  out  of  place  to  mention  a  few  representatives  of  the 
thousands  of  teachers  which  Scotland  has  given  to  the 
Dominion.  There  is  not  a  college  or  university  in  Can 
ada  where  at  least  one  "  son  of  the  heather  "  is  not  to 


292  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

be  found  in  some  capacity,  and  the  entire  educational 
system  of  the  country,  from  primary  school  to  univer 
sity,  is  more  indebted  to  the  Scottish  section  of  the  com- 
mnuity  than  to  any  other.  It  is  the  Scotch  element,  in 
fact,  that  has  made  education  become  the  prime  factor 
in  Canadian  public  life,  so  important  an  office  in  the 
general  and  provincial  Governments,  it  is  to-day. 

Daniel  Wilkie  was  born  near  Hamilton  in  1777.    He 
was  the  youngest   of  twelve   children   and  \vas   left  an 
orphan  in  early  life.    His  education  was  undertaken  at 
the  expense  of  his  elder  brothers,  who-  designed  him  for 
the  ministry,  and  with  this  object  in  view  he  went  to 
Glasgow  University,  after  passing  through  the  grammar 
school  of  Hamilton.    In   1797  he  entered  the   Divinity 
Hall  and  won  the  first  prize,  a  medal  for  an  essay  on  the 
Socinian  controversy — a  controversy  that  then  and  for 
more  than  half  a  century  afterward  seriously  troubled 
the  Kirk  and  which  still  bobs  up  now  and  again.    In  1807 
Wilkie  crossed  over  to  Canada,  and  in  the  same  year 
was  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Presbytery  of  Montreal. 
He  was  sound  and  orthodox  in  his  pulpit  ministrations 
and  might  have  passed  his  life  in  the  work  of  the  min 
istry,  or  he  might  have  confined  himself  to  literature, 
for  as  editor  during  three  years  of  a  Quebec  newspaper 
he  won  many  high  encomiums  for  his  work.    But  teach 
ing  was   his   real   mission,   his   hobby.     For   over  forty 
years  he  was  engaged  in  teaching  in   Quebec,  and  in 
that  respect  was  one  of  the  most  successful  in  Canada. 
Hundreds  of  pupils  passed  through  his  hands  each  year, 
and  toward  the  close  of  his  career  he  could  point  to 
his   "  old  boys "   occupying  positions   of   distinction  or 
prominence  in  every  walk  of  life  throughout  Canada. 
Probably  the  happiest  day  of  his  life  was  that  on  which 
the  High  School  of  Quebec  was  opened,  and  thus  was 
realized  a  dream  he  had  long  cherished.    This  was  in 
1843,  and  as  rector  he  hoped  to  enter  upon  a  new  and 
extended   lease   of  usefulness,   but   ill-health    compelled 
his  retirement  within  a  year  and  the  remainder  of  his 
days  were  spent  in  privacy,   sometimes   in   gloom,   for 
toward  the  end  his  mind  gave  way.    As  the  night  was 


EDUCATORS.  293 

falling  he  forgot  everything  save  the  words  of  Divine 
truth.  When  he  had  forgotten  all  about  the  classics 
he  could  still  read  and  quote  Scripture,  and  as  the  end 
drew  nearer  every  feature  of  his  once  varied  and  aggres 
sive  character  seemed  to  disappear  excepting  that  of 
love.  Dr.  Wilkie  was  buried  in  Mount  Hermon  Ceme 
tery,  Quebec,  and  his  grave  was  marked  by  a  handsome 
monument  erected  by  a  number  of  his  old  pupils. 

The  funeral  discourse  that  was  delivered  over  the 
body  of  the  dead  teacher  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
of  its  kind  ever  heard  in  Canada.  Its  speaker  was  the 
Rev.  Dr.  John  Cook  of  Quebec,  himself  a  teacher  of 
note,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  influential  divines  of 
his  time  in  Canada.  He  was  a  native  of  Dumfries-shire, 
and  had  studied  at  Edinburgh  under  the  great  Dr.  Chal 
mers,  settling  in  Canada  in  1836.  In  the  divisions  which 
entered  the  Church  in  Canada  consequent  upon  the 
Disruption  in  Scotland,  Dr.  Cook  took  a  prominent 
part,  not  only  counseling  adherence  on  the  part  of  the 
Canadian  Presbyterians  to  the  old  Church,  but  after  the 
schism  did  take  place  striving  hard  to  effect  a  reunion. 
In  the  foundation  of  Queens  College,  Kingston,  he  took 
a  deep  interest.  He  was  one  of  the  delegation  that  went 
to  Great  Britain  to  obtain  its  charter,  and  afterward  be 
came  one  of  its  trustees.  Urged  in  1857  to  act  as  Prin 
cipal  of  the  college,  he  agreed  to  fill  the  office  until  the 
faculty  could  secure  the  services  of  some  one  else,  and 
he  continued  as  Principal  for  two  years,  during  which 
time  he  taught  the  divinity  class.  Then  he  was  suc 
ceeded  by  the  Rev.  William  Leitch,  a  native  of  Rothe- 
say,  and  who  was  minister  of  Monimail  when  he  was 
summoned  to  Kingston,  (where  he  died  in  1864.)  It; 
was  through  Dr.  Cook's  influence  that  the  Quebec  High 
School  was  founded  in  1843.  For  years  he  was  the 
backbone  of  the  institution,  and  to  him  more  than  to 
any  one  else  was  it  indebted  for  triumphing  over,  its 
many  early  difficulties  and  developing  into  one  of  the 
foremost  institutions  of  its  class  in  Canada.  In  con 
nection  with  Morrin  College,  Dr.  Cook's  name  was  also 
conspicuous. 


294  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Another  name  which  stands  out  prominently  in  the 
history  of  education  in  Canada  is  that  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Michael  Willis,  Principal  of  Knox  College.  He  was 
born  in  Greenock,  where  his  father  (afterward  of  Stirling) 
was  for  many  years  a  minister.  For  twenty-five  years 
after  leaving  college  Dr.  Willis  held  pastoral  charges  in 
Scotland,  in  the  old  Secession  Church,  and  threw  in  his 
lot  with  the  Free  Church  when  that  denomination 
sprang  into  existence.  It  was  by  a  vote  of  the  Colonial 
Board  of  that  Church  that  he  was  selected  to  the  Chair 
of  Divinity  in  Knox  College,  and  though  the  change 
\vas  stoutly  opposed  by  his  congregation  in  Renfield 
Street,  Glasgow,  he  felt  that  duty  and  conscience  called 
him  "  over  the  sea.'"  His  long  connection  with  Knox 
College,  as  teacher  and  Principal,  was  a  very  valuable 
one  to  the  Church  in  Canada,  and  he  not  only  aided 
greatly  in  giving  to  the  students  the  thorough  teaching 
which  made  a  Knox  College  graduate  so  acceptable  to 
the  ranks  of  the  ministry,  but  he  infused  into  every  one 
of  his  pupils  a  catholicity  of  taste  and  a  non-sectarian 
spirit  which  led  them  to  place  the  simple  truths  of  Christ's 
teaching  above  all  creeds  or  denominational  barriers. 
He  was  a  determined  opponent  of  any  union  between 
Church  and  State  and  spoke  and  wrote  against  it  on  all 
occasions,  but  so  honest  were  his  utterances  and  so 
lovable  was  his  character,  that  his  outspokenness  raised 
him  no  enemies  even  among  those  who  were  as  zealous 
in  the  opposite  direction. 

Treating  of  Knox  College  recalls  a  flood  of  Scotch 
professors,  among1  whom  we  will  mention  only  one,  Dr. 
Robert  Burns,  who  from  1856  till  1864  occupied  its 
Chair  of  Church  History  and  Apologetics.  Dr.  Burns 
was  born  at  Bo'ness  in  1798  and  for  some  thirty  years 
preached  in  Paisley,  from  the  same  pulpit  that  had  once 
been  occupied  by  Dr.  Witherspoon.  At  the  Disruption 
he  "  came  out "  and,  crossing  to  Canada,  became  minis 
ter  of  Knox  Church,  Toronto,  and  remained  there  until 
he  entered  the  faculty  of  the  college.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  learning  and  culture  and  an  amiable  and  thorough 
going  preacher.  Outside  of  the  ministry  he  took  a  spe- 


EDUCATORS.  295 

cial  interest  in  poor-law  matters,  and  wrote  much  on  that 
and  other  subjects.  Dr.  Burns  will,  however,  be  best  re 
membered  by  his  carefully  edited  edition  of  "  Wood- 
row's  History  of  the  Sufferings." 

Many  other  names  crowd  upon  us,  such  as  that  of 
Vice  Principal  Leach  of  McGill  College,  Montreal,  a 
native  of  Berwick  on  Tweed;  Dr.  Inglis  of  Char- 
lottetown,  a  native  of  Montrose;  Principal  McVicar  of 
McGill  College,  and  his  brother,  Prof.  Malcolm  Mc 
Vicar  of  Toronto.  But  we  must  cross  the  St.  Lawrence 
again,  or  the  rush  of  Canadian  teachers  demanding  no 
tice  would  swamp  this  chapter. 

One  of  the  most  industrious  and  painstaking  of  scien 
tific  students  of  whom  we  have  record  was  Granville 
Sharp  Pattison,  who  was  for  many  years  teacher  of  anat 
omy  in  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York  and 
was  engaged  in  that  capacity  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
in  1851.  He  was  born  near  GlasgDw  in  1791,  and  was 
for  a  time  lecturer  on  anatomy  in  the  Andersonian  Col 
lege,  in  that  city.  After  settling  in  America  he  became 
Professor  of  Anatomy  in  the  Medical  College  at  Balti 
more.  After  many  years'  residence  in  the  Monumental 
City  he  enjoyed  a  short  vacation  in  Europe,  and  then 
took  the  Chair  of  Anatomy  in  Jefferson  Medical  Col 
lege,  Philadelphia.  He  was  recognized  there  as  one  of 
the  ablest  men  in  his  profession,  a  particularly  pains 
taking  demonstrator,  and  won  the  confidence  and  re 
spect  of  the  students  who  attended  his  lectures.  His 
contributions  to  medical  literature  in  the  shape  of 
pamphlets  and  papers  in  transactions  were  highly  praised 
in  their  time,  but  they  have  long  since  served  their  day 
and  generation  and  been  relegated  to  the  honorable  con 
dition  of  scientific  curiosities  like  most  medical  works 
after  a  very  brief  season  of  popularity  or  usefulness. 

In  the  annals  of  education  in  the  United  States  no 
name  stands  out  more  boldly  not  only  for  his  know 
ledge  of  the  science  of  pedagogy,  but  for  the  manner 
in  which  he  advocated  its  highest  interests  and  directed 
public  opinion  in  its  advancement  than  that  of  William 
Russell,  who,  besides  understanding  the  theory  of  teach- 


296  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

With*)  w\        Ku  5se  II 

ing,  was  himself  a  practical  and  successful  instructor. 
Born  in  Glasgow  in  1798,  he  settled  in  Savannah,  Ga., 
in  1819  and  took  charge  of  Chatham  Academy  there. 
After  a  few  years'  experience  in  Savannah,  he  removed 
to  New  Haven,  and  taught  in  the  new  Township  Acad 
emy  and  the  Hopkins  Grammar  School,  the  latter  one 
of  the  schools  founded  by  Edward  Hopkins,  an  English 
trader,  who  died  at  London  in  1657,  and  whose  gifts  to 
the  cause  of  education  in  America  have  done  more  to 
keep  his  memory  alive  than  the  important  position  he 
held  in  New  England  for  many  years. 

All  this  time,  while  teaching,  Mr.  Russell  had  been 
studying  the  entire  science  of  pedagogy,  and  the  fruits 
of  this  were  seen  in  the  masterly  manner  in  which  for 
some  four  years,  1826-29,  he  conducted  the  "  American 
Journal  of  Education."  Removing  in  1830  to  Phila 
delphia  he  took  charge  of  a  ladies'  seminary.  In  1838 
he  returned  to  New  England  and  devoted  himself  to  the 
teaching  of  elocution  in  Boston  and  Andover,  lecturing 
at  frequent  intervals  to  teachers  through  New  England 
and  in  New  York.  In  1849  ne  organized  a  teachers'  in 
stitute  in  New  Haven  and  removed  its  headquarters  to 
Lancaster,  Mass.,  where  he  remained  until  his  death,  in 
1873.  For  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life  he  lectured  fre 
quently  before  teachers'  institutes  throughout  Massa 
chusetts  and  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  leading  and 
most  successful  instructors  of  the  day  in  his  own  spe 
cialty,  that  of  elocution.  He  was  the  author  of  many 
popular  and  highly  practical  schoolbooks,  including 
"  The  Grammar  of  Composition,"  "  American  Elocu 
tionist,"  and  a  dozen  others. 

One  of  the  best-known  educators  in  New  York  for 
many  years  was  Charles  Murray  Nairne,  who  from  1857 
to  1 88 1  was  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  Columbia 
College.  He  was  born  at  Perth  in  1808,  graduated  from 
St.  Andrews  in  1832,  and  afterward  extended  his  studies 
at  Edinburgh  L'niversity.  For  a  short  time  he  was 
associated  at  Glasgow  with  Dr.  Chalmers,  but  in  1847 
he  left  Scotland,  and  soon  after  reaching  the  United 
States  found  a  position  as  teacher  at  College  Hill, 


EDUCATORS.  297 

Poughkeepsie.  Then  he  opened  a  private  school  in 
New  York  City,  and  continued  to  conduct  it  with  every 
success  that  can  attend  a  teacher  until  he  became  con 
nected  with  Columbia.  He  retired  into  private  life  with 
the  dignity  and  title  of  an  emeritus  professor  of  Columbia 
in  1881  and  died  a  year  later  at  Warrenton,  Va. 

Another  noted  New  York  teacher  was  David  Burnet 
Scott,  who  died  in  1894.  "  He  had  been  connected," 
said  one  of  the  newspapers  which  recorded  his  death, 
"  with  the  public  school  system  of  New  York  City  from 
its  beginning,  and  as  a  teacher,  a  successful  schoolbook 
writer,  and  a  public  speaker  prominently  identified  with 
the  great  political  movements  of  his  day,  he  was  a  well- 
known  and  highly  respected  man."  Prof.  Scott  was 
born  at  Edinburgh  in  1822  and  educated  at  the  High 
School  with  the  view  of  being  sent  to  St.  Andrews  Uni 
versity.  Circumstances,  however,  compelled  his  father 
to  emigrate,  and  the  family  settled  near  Hartford,  Conn., 
where  young  Scott  worked  for  a  time  with  his  father 
as  a  tailor.  He  kept  up  his  studies,  however,  while 
working  "  on  the  board,"  and  in  time  obtained  a  posi 
tion  as  instructor  of  classics  in  Hartford  High  School. 
In  1845  ne  settled  in  New  York,  and  for  many  years 
was  connected,  as  teacher  and  Principal,  with  the  pub 
lic  schools.  In  1870  he  became  Principal  of  the  intro 
ductory  department  of  the  College  of  the  City  of  New 
York  and  afterward  was  transferred  to  the  Chair  of 
English  Literature,  which  he  filled  till  his  death.  He 
was  the  author  of  three  school  histories  of  the  United 
States  and  other  works  which  enjoyed  a  wide  circula 
tion  and  were,  and  still  are,  eminently  useful.^ 

Prominent  as  he  was  in  connection  with  his  duties  as 
a  teacher,  Prof.  Scott  became  more  widely  and  popu 
larly  known  by  the  force  he  exerted  in  public  affairs, 
by  the  boldness  and  originality  of  his  views  on  social 
economy  and  by  the  brilliant  manner  in  which  he  gave 
expression  to  them.  He  was  an  ardent  and  uncompro 
mising  Abolitionist  and  aided  in  the  formation  of  the 
Republican  Party.  Afterward,  when  he  thought  that 
party  had  fulfilled  its  mission,  he  desired  to  see  another 


298  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

movement  come  into  operation,  and  he  found  what  he 
wanted  in  the  single-tax  theories  of  Henry  George.  In 
1886  he  threw  himself  heartily  into  Mr.  George's  candi 
dature  for  the  Mayoralty  of  New  York.  This  move 
ment  started  in  a  very  half-hearted  manner,  speedily  as 
sumed  great  proportions,  and  ended  in  a  magnificent 
run  on  the  part  of  Mr.  George.  That  gentleman  was  de 
feated,  but  his  large  vote  surprised  even  his  friends 
and  demonstrated  that  there  was  a  very  large  body  of 
citizens  who  cared  little  for  either  of  the  two  predomi 
nating  parties.  To  this  end,  Prof.  Scott  signally  con 
tributed  by  his  voice,  his  pen,  and  his  example,  and 
thereby  earned  the  thanks  of  all  interested  in  improving 
the  system  of  municipal  government  not  only  in  New 
York,  but  throughout  the  United  States. 

A  friend  recently  sent  us  the  following  cutting  from 
an  American  paper,  which  is  interesting  at  least  for  the 
many  brilliant  names  it  contains,  apart  from  the  record 
it  gives  us  of  a  Scot  who  devoted  the  best  years  of  his 
life  to  the  cause  of  education  in  America: 

"The  Rev.  Dr.  R.  A.  Paterson,  late  President  of 
Binghamton  College  and  founder  of  the  first  women's 
training  college  in  America,  has  returned  (1894)  to  Edin 
burgh,  Scotland,  his  native  city,  to  resume  the  pastor 
ate  after  forty  years'  absence  in  this  country.  He  and 
Baron  Playfair,  Prof.  P.  G.  Tait,  the  first  scientist  in 
Edinburgh,  and  the  late  Prof.  James  Clark  Maxwell, 
the  foremost  scientist  and  Professor  of  Experimental 
Physics  in  Cambridge,  were  all  boys  in  Edinburgh  to 
gether  in  the  forties,  and  Paterson,  Tait,  and  Maxwell 
were  university  classmates  under  James  Forbes,  Chris 
topher  North,  and  Sir  William  Hamilton.  Dr.  Paterson 
came  to  this  country  in  1852,  to  be  the  tutor  of  the  Hon. 
Charles  Ellis  and  the  Hon.  Edward  Ellis,  now  proprie 
tors  of  the  Schenectady  Locomotive  Works." 

We  have  reserved,  as  a  fitting  name  to  close  this 
chapter,  the  name  of  William  Wood,  not  only  because 
of  his  grand  services  to  education,  but  because  his  serv 
ices  were  in  reality  typical  of  the  devotion  to  that  cause 
of  thousands  of  Scotsmen  who  have  no  connection 


EDUCATORS.  299 

with  teaching  as  a  profession  and  devote  themselves  to 
promoting  it  because  its  advancement  is  one  of  the 
intuitive  duties  of  their  race,  and  because  by  spreading 
broadcast  the  blessings  of  education  they  are  thereby 
advancing  the  best  interests  of  their  adopted  country. 
Thousands  of  Scotsmen  in  America  have  served  upon 
boards  of  education  or  as  regents  or  trustees  of  univer 
sities  or  colleges,  and  thereby  performed  one  of  the 
highest  services  which  patriotism  can  inspire. 

Pre-eminent  among  such  public  benefactors  must 
linger  the  memory  of  William  Wood.  He  was  born  in 
Glasgow  in  1808  and  belonged  to  that  Dennistoun  fam 
ily  which  has  given  its  name  to  one  of  the  sections  of 
the  Western  Metropolis  of  Scotland.  He  was  educated 
at  the  Universities  of  Glasgow  and  St.  Andrews,  and  at 
the  latter  place  had  for  one  of  his  teachers  Dr.  Thomas 
Chalmers,  a  fact  of  which  he  was  very  proud  and  never 
tired  of  recalling  in  his  public  addresses. 

Throughout  his  long  life  he  remained  a  diligent  stu 
dent.  President  Hunter,  of  the  New  York  Normal  Col 
lege,  said  of  him:  "  In  1870  he  got  out  of  the  Board  of 
Education  to  study  up  on  his  Greek  because  he  felt  he 
was  a  little  rusty.  His  memory  for  poetry  was  marvel 
ous,  and  I  have  heard  him  repeat  verses  by  the  hour. 
His  favorites  were  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  and  Southey." 

Mr.  Wood  came  to  America  in  1828  and  begun  his 
commercial  career.  After  several  years'  American  expe 
rience  he  returned  to  Scotland,  remaining  there  till  1844, 
when  he  once  more  settled  in  New  York  as  a  partner 
in  the  firm  of  Dennistoun,  Wood  &  Co.  This  partner 
ship  continued  till  1868,  when  Mr.  Wood  retired  from 
business.  The  first  year  Mr.  Wood  saw  New  York  he 
joined  the  St.  Andrew's  Society,  believing  that  to  be  a 
duty,  and  he  served  it  in  many  capacities — two  years  as 
President — and  for  some  time  prior  to  his  death  was  its 
oldest  member.  He  was  a  regular  attendant  at  the  St. 
Andrew's  Day  celebrations,  and  very  frequently  re 
sponded  to  toasts,  the  last  occasion  being  in  1893,  some 
ten  months  before  his  death,  when,  visibly  failing,  he 
made  a  reminiscent  speech  .in  response  to  "  The  day  and 


300  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

a'  wha  honor  it."  He  spoke  of  the  many  similar  meet 
ings  he  had  attended,  and  then,  as  if  conscious  that  that 
was  to>  be  the  last,  he  closed  by  quoting  Tennyson's 
famous  "Crossing  the  Bar": 

"  Sunset  and  evening  star, 

And  one  clear  call  for  me, 
And  may  there  be  no  moaning  of  the  bar 

When  I  put  out  to  sea. 


For  tho;  from  out  our  bourne  of  Time  and  Place 

The  flood  may  bear  me  far, 
I  hope  to  see  my  Pilot  face  to  face 

When  I  have  crost  the  bar." 

With  these  words  the  old  man  left  the  banqueting 
room  and  virtually  closed  his  public  appearances.  These 
had  been  many,  for  Mr.  Wood  was  a  magnificent  speak 
er,  and  a  popular  man,  and  when  in  the  hey-day  of  his 
strength  his  services  were  often  in  demand  at  gatherings 
of  all  sorts.  Possibly  the  most  noted  of  these  occasions 
was  in  Central  Park,  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Scott  statue, 
on  Aug.  15,  1871,  when  he  delivered  an  oration  which 
was  regarded  as  the  best  example  of  Scotch  eloquence 
ever  heard  in  America.  His  public  career  may  be  said 
to  have  commenced  in  1869,  when  he  was  appointed  a 
Commissioner  of  Public  Instruction.  He  continued  for 
the  rest  of  his  life  to  have  a  potent  influence  on  the 
education  board  in  the  city,  even  in  the  intervals  when 
he  was  not  connected  with  it  as  its  President  or  as  a  mem 
ber.  He  also  served  for  a  time  as  one  of  the  Dock  Com 
missioners  of  the  city.  In  1888  he  retired  from  official 
life,  and  was  publicly  thanked  for  his  services  to  New 
York  by  the  then  Mayor,  A.  S.  Hewitt.  From  that  time 
until  his  death,  in  1894,  Mr.  Wood  spent  his  days  in 
pleasant  retirement,  taking  a  keen  interest  in  passing 
affairs,  holding  fast  to  old  friends,  but  seldom  going  be- 
vond  the  limits  of  his  own' immediate  circle. 


CHAPTER     X. 

STATESMEN     AND     POLITICIANS. 

WE  enter  upon  the  subject-matter  of  this  chapter  with 
fear  and  with  trembling,  and  would  fain  dismiss  it  alto 
gether,  pass  its  theme  by,  as  it  were,  but  for  the  sake 
of  the  completeness  of  our  survey  of  the  Scot  in  Amer 
ica.  The  subject  is  practically  an  inexhaustible  one. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  Colonial  history  Scots  have 
been  prominent  in  public  affairs,  and  at  the  present 
time  it  is  safe  to  say  there  is  not  a  Legislature  or  mu 
nicipality  in  the  country  that  cannot  produce  one  or 
more  members  who  are  able  to  trace  Scotch  blood  in  their 
veins.  The  connection  of  the  Scots  with  America,  in 
fact,  began  long  before  the  Colonial  period,  and  has 
steadily  waxed  in  importance  and  numerical  strength 
ever  since.  Sometimes,  we  must  confess,  the  claim  of 
Scotch  descent  is  decidedly  infinitesimal,  but  the  claim, 
even  when  made  on  the  slenderest  grounds,  is  a  compli 
ment  to  the  "  Land  of  the  Heather." 

However  that  may  be,  there  is  no  question  that  a 
complete  survey  of  the  story  of  the  Scottish  race  in 
America,  even  within  the  limitations  imposed  by  the 
title  to  this  chapter,  would  bring  us  face  to  face  with 
the  task  of  writing  a  tolerably  complete  American  dic 
tionary  of  biography.  Thomas  Jefferson,  James  Madi 
son,  James  Monroe,  Patrick  Henry,  Andrew  Jackson, 
Thomas  Benton,  John  C.  Calhoun,  James  Buchanan, 
J.  C.  Breckinridge,  U.  S.  Grant,  R.  B.  Hayes,  Chester 
A.  Arthur,  and  James  G.  Blaine,  all  claimed  descent 
from  Scotland,  and  so  did  Robert  Fulton,  the  steamboat 
pioneer;  C.  H.  McCormick,  of  thrashing  machine  fame; 
301 


302  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Davy  Crockett,  the  fighter;  Joseph  Henry,  the  scientist, 
and  if  the  student  of  this  subject  were  to  incorporate,  as 
he  would  have  a  perfect  right  to  do,  the  legion  describing 
themselves  as  of  the  Scotch-Irish  race,  he  would  be  con 
fronted  with  an  appalling  task.  Even  George  Wash 
ington  had  a  little  mixture  of  Scotch  blood  in  his  com 
position — so  it  is  said. 

In  these  circumstances  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
draw  the  line  somewhere,  and  instead  of  attempting 
anything  like  a  complete  survey,  to  rest  content  with 
selecting  a  few  instances  from  early  times  until  the 
present  day.  Of  course  many  who  might  claim  a  place 
in  this  chapter  have  already  been  spoken  of  in  other 
connections,  and  so  we  must  pass  over  a  large  number 
of  names  which  would  add  greatly  to  the  brilliancy  of 
the  present  record. 

One  of  the  earliest  of  the  minor  Scotch  office  hold 
ers  in  the  history  of  the  continent  was  Thomas  Gordon, 
who  was  born  at  Pitlochry,  in  the  parish  of  Moulin, 
Perthshire,  in  1650.  In  1684  he  settled  at  Scotch  Plains, 
and  in  1698  was  elected  Attorney  General  of  the  East 
ern  district  of  Jersey  and  Secretary  and  Registrar  in 
1702.  Despite  these  legal  appointments,  it  was  not  until 
1707  that  he  was  licensed  as  an  attorney,  and  the  same 
year  he  was  elected  to  the  Legislature  and  served  as 
Speaker  of  the  Assembly.  These  appointments  and 
elections  show  that  he  must  have  enjoyed  considerable 
popularity  among  his  fellow  colonists.  But  he  rose  still 
higher  when  he  was  appointed  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Province,  and,  later  on,  its  Receiver  General  and  Treas 
urer.  He  died  at  Perth  Amboy  in  1722,  having  a  record 
as  an  office  holder  that  would  have  won  for  him  the  envy 
of  a  modern  politician  had  he  lived  in  later  times  and 
been  as  successful.  But,  unlike  the  majority  of  modern 
instances  of  success  in  that  regard,  old  Thomas  Gor 
don's  good  fortune  was  undoubtedly  due  to  his  honesty 
and  ability,  two  qualities  which  do  not  figure  very  large 
ly  in  the  qualities  of  our  contemporary  office  seekers. 

A  man  who  loomed  up  even  more  prominently  in  the 
public  eye  of  his  day  was  Andrew  Hamilton,  who  was 


STATESMEN     AND     POLITICIANS.  3Q3 

called  by  Gouverneur  Morris  "  the  day  star  of  the  Amer- 
ican  Revolution."  There  is  a  good  deal  of  mystery  about 
the  early  career  of  this  man.  He  was  born,  it  is  believed, 
in  Edinburgh  about  1656  and  settled  in  the  American 
colonies  in  1695.  Of  his  family  or  history  until  landing 
in  America  nothing  is  certain.  For  some  reason  or 
other  he  never  referred  to  such  matters.  It  is  known, 
however,  that  when  he  first  settled  in  the  Colonies  he 
bore  the  name  of  Trent,  although  he  soon  discarded  it 
for  Hamilton,  which  is  believed  to  have  been  that  of 
his  family.  Probably  he  was  concerned  in  some  of  the 
Covenanting  troubles  and  his  own  strict  religious  views 
would  seem  to  warrant  this  suggestion,  for  when  he 
settled  in  Philadelphia  he  was  received  into  communion 
by  the  Quakers  and  was  one  of  the  most  strait-laced  of 
that  sect,  although  a  lawyer.  His  first  resting  place  in 
America  was  in  Accomac  Parish,  Virginia,  where  he 
got  a  position  as  steward  on  an  estate  and  added  to  his 
income  by  conducting  a  classical  school.  After  a  while 
the  owner  of  the  estate  died  and  the  widow  became  the 
wife  of  Hamilton,  who  thereby  not  only  became  a  land 
ed  proprietor,  but  at  once  got  a  standing  in  social  life 
which  started  him  in  a  signally  favorable  way  toward 
the  success  which  he  afterward  attained.  He  entered 
upon  the  study  of  the  law  with  all  the  zeal  of  a  deter 
mined  Scot,  and  in  due  time  was  admitted  to  practice. 
Then,  seeing  that  the  opportunities  of  the  profession 
lay  in  the  large  cities,  he  removed  to  Philadelphia,  and 
as  the  saying  goes,  "  hung  out  his  shingle."  This  was 
some  time  prior  to  1716.  In  1717  he  became  Attorney 
General  of  Pennsylvania,  and  in  1721  a  member  of  the 
Provincial  Council.  He  became  Recorder  of  Philadel 
phia  in  1727,  and  the  same  year  was  elected  a  member 
of  Assembly  from  Bucks  County.  He  continued  to  be  a 
Representative  until  1739,  and  was  several  times  Speaker 
of  Assembly.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  ground  on 
which  Independence  Hall  in  Philadelphia  stands  was 
bought  by  Hamilton  for  the  purpose  of  the  erection  of 
a  suitable  building  to  accommodate  the  Legislature 
and  the  courts,  these  public  bodies  having  previously 


304  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

been  sheltered  in  private  houses,  and,  though  the  scheme 
was  not  completed  until  after  Hamilton's  death,  it  is 
curious  to  know  that  a  spot  so  famous  in  the  history 
cjf  the  country  and  so  sacred  to  every  lover  of  freedom 
was  once  in  the  possession  of  one  whose  country  has 
been  famous  for  its  struggles  on  behalf  of  liberty. 

Notwithstanding  his  public  duties,  Hamilton  contin 
ued  zealously  to  practice  his  profession,  and  gradually 
advanced  to  the  front  until  he  became  the  undisputed 
leader  of  the  Pennsylvania  bar.  His  fame  had  extended 
far  beyond  the  boundaries  of  his  own  State — and  fame 
did  not  travel  as  quickly  then  as  now — and  he  was  noted 
not  only  for  his  fearlessness  in  maintaining  the  rights 
of  his  clients,  but  in  his  adherence  to  what  he  perceived 
to  be  the  rights  of  all  citizens  and  the  inherent  liberties 
of  the  Colonies.  All  this  gave  him  the  opportunity  which 
has  won  him  a  place  in  American  history  and  caused 
Gouverneur  Morris  to  characterize  him  by  the  proud 
title  with  which  we  began  our  reference  to  him,  a  title 
which  any  American  family  would  be  proud  to  possess 
among  its  ancestral  glories. 

A  printer  in  New  York — John  Peter  Zenger — had 
printed  in  the  columns  of  the  "  New  York  Journal,'1  a 
little  newspaper  issued  by  him,  some  strictures  on  the 
then  Chief  Magistrate,  Gov.  Crosby.  The  strictures  were 
very  unpalatable,  mainly  because  they  were  for  the  most 
part  true,  and  as  a  warning  to  others,  as  much  as  for 
his  own  offenses,  Zenger  wras  arrested.  It  was  proposed 
to  deal  summarily  with  the  prisoner,  but  public  interest 
was  aroused  in  his  case,  and  it  was  seen  that  if  he  was 
convicted  all  hope  of  free  speech  would,  for  the  time 
at  least,  be  gone.  As  the  public  became  interested  the 
authorities  became  determined  and  harsh.  In  pursuance 
of  his  rights  Zenger's  counsel  made  an  objection  to  the 
Judges  who  were  to  try  the  case,  and  they  were  prompt 
ly  disbarred,  while  a  lawyer  was  assigned  by  the  court 
to  carry  on  the  defense.  All  this  time  public  sentiment 
had  been  forming  and  consolidating,  and  the  "  Sons  of 
Liberty,"  as  representatives  of  the  spirit  of  liberty  among 
the  people,  took  a  hand  in  fighting  the  Executive  and 


STATESMEN     AND     POLITICIANS.  305 

ill  defending  what  they  regarded  as  the  inalienable  rights 
of  all  freemen — that  of  free  speech  and  discussion.  When 
Zenger  was  finally  called  on  to  face  a  jury,  the  authori 
ties  were  confident  of  making  short  work  of  his  case 
and  of  establishing  a  precedent  which  would  crush  out 
what  they  deemed  "  sedition  "  in  the  future.  It  was  not 
known  to  them  that  Zenger's  friends  were  doing  any 
practical  work  on  his  behalf,  but  they  were  better 
enlightened  when  the  court  was  open  and  Andrew  Ham 
ilton  walked  in  and  announced  that  he  had  been  re 
tained  as  counsel  for  the  prisoner.  The  fame  of  the  ven 
erable  attorney,  his  standing  at  the  bar,  the  prominent 
offices  he  had  held,  and  his  position  as  a  member  of 
Assembly  forbade  his  being  treated  in  the  summary 
fashion  of  Zenger's  earlier  counsel,  and  the  representa 
tives  of  the  prosecution  could  do  nothing  but  submit. 
They  had  great  hopes  from  the  jury,  and,  besides,  they 
knew  that  the  Judges  were  with  them. 

The  prosecution  held  that  all  the  jury  had  to  deter 
mine  was  whether  the  publication  which  was  scheduled 
as  libelous  had  appeared,  and  that  they  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  libel.  Hamilton  de 
murred  from  this,  saying  he  was  prepared  to  admit  the 
publication  of  the  strictures  and  to>  prove  their  truth, 
leaving  the  issue  to  the  jury  to  be  whether  truth  was  a 
libel  or  not.  He  was  overruled  by  the  Court  on  the 
inferred  ground  that  anything  reflecting  on  the  King 
was  a  libel.  Hamilton  then  denied  that  the  King's  rep 
resentative  had  the  same  prerogatives  as  the  sovereign 
himself,  and  claimed  the  right  of  proving  the  truth  of 
every  statement  that  had  been  made  in  Zenger's  paper. 
This  the  Court  again  overruled,  and  Hamilton  confined 
his  attention  to  the  jury  and  made  a  glowing  speech  on 
behalf  of  personal  liberty  and  the  right  of  free  criticism, 
which  still  ranks  as  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  Ameri 
can  legal  eloquence.  His  speech  was  productive  of  ef 
fect  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  courtroom  in  which  it 
was  delivered,  or  the  case  in  which  it  was  used.  It  started 
a  train  of  thought  which  fired  men's  minds  and  did  more 
than  anything  else  to  give  expression  to  the  popular 


30G  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

desire  for  freedom — for  the  freedom  which  the  people 
deemed  their  birthright  as  British  subjects — for  inde 
pendence  was  not  then  thought  of,  though  it  was  the 
natural  and  unavoidable  result,  as  men's  minds  and 
men's  experience  then  went  in  Britain  and  in  America. 
He  practically  admitted  again  the  publication  of  the 
words  deemed  libelous.  "  Then  the  verdict  must  be  for 
the  King,"  broke  in  the  prosecuting  attorney.  But  Ham 
ilton  proceeded  to  contend  that  the  words  must  be  con 
sidered  by  the  jury  as  to  whether  they  constituted  a 
libel  or  no,  and  quoted  texts  of  Scripture  to  show  how 
even  they  might  be  considered  as  libelous,  by  a  zealous 
lawyer,  against  the  then  government  of  the  Colony. 
Therefore  he  urged  the  jury,  even  though  the  Court 
might  decide  otherwise,  to  consider  the  words  for  them 
selves,  and  put  their  own  construction  on  them.  In  con 
cluding  he  said:  "You  see  I  labor  under  the  weight 
of  many  years,  and  am  borne  down  by  many  infirmities 
of  body;  yet,  old  and  weak  as  I  am,  I  should  think  it 
my  duty,  if  required,  to  go  to  the  uttermost  part  of  the 
land  where  my  service  could  be  of  any  use  in  assisting 
to  quench  the  flame  of  prosecutions  upon  informations 
set  on  foot  by  the  Government  to  deprive  a  people  of 
the  right  of  remonstrating  and  complaining,  too,  against 
the  arbitrary  attempts  of  men  in  power.  Men  who  op 
press  and  injure  the  people  under  their  administration 
provoke  them  to  cry  out  and  complain,  and  then  make 
that  very  complaint  the  foundation  for  new  oppressions 
and  prosecutions.  :  The  question  before  the  court 

is  not  of  small  or  private  concern.  It  is  not  the  cause  of 
a  poor  printer  nor  of  New  York  alone  which  you  are 
now  trying.  No!  It  may  in  its  consequences  affect 
every  freeman  that  lives  under  the  British  Government 
upon  the  main  of  America.  It  is  the  best  cause;  it  is  the 
cause  of  liberty;  and  I  make  no  doubt  but  your  upright 
conduct  this  day  will  not  only  entitle  you  to  the  love  and 
esteem  of  your  fellow-citizens,  but  every  man  wTho  pre 
fers  freedom  to  a  life  of  slavery  will  bless  and  honor 
you  as  men  who  have  baffled  the  attempts  of  tyranny, 
and  by  an  impartial  and  incorrupt  verdict,  have  made  a 


STATESMEN     AND     POLITICIANS.  3Q7 

noble  foundation  for  securing  to  ourselves  and  our  pos 
terity  and  our  neighbors  that  to  which  nature  and  the 
laws  of  our  country  have  given  us  a  right — the  liberty 
of  both  exposing  and  opposing  arbitrary  power  in  these 
parts  of  the  world,  at  least  by  speaking  and  writing 
truth." 

The  prosecution  replied,  and  the  Court  charged 
against  the  prisoner,  but  Hamilton's  eloquence  was  irre 
sistible,  and  the  jury,  after  a  few  minutes'  deliberation, 
acquitted  Zenger,  much  to  the  disgust  of  the  powers. 
But  the  public  delight  was  unbounded,  and  Hamilton 
became  the  hero  ;:of  the  hour.  The  next  day  he  was 
entertained  at  a  public  dinner,  received  the  freedom  of 
the  city  from  the  corporation,  the  certificate  being  in 
closed  in  a  gold  box  purchased  by  private  subscription, 
and  he  was  escorted  by  a  large  crowd  to  the  barge  which 
was  to  carry  him  back  to  Philadelphia.  Hamilton  died 
in  Philadelphia,  in  1741.  His  son,  James,  became  Gov 
ernor  of  Pennsylvania. 

Sometimes,  in  the  course  of  this  work,  we  have  traced 
the  fortunes  of  a  family  for  two  or  three  generations, 
mainly  for  the  sake  of  showing  how  the  qualities  which 
distinguished  the  founder  have  not  been  lost  in  his  de 
scendants.  Another  instance  of  the  same  sort  may  be 
recorded  in  this  place  in  connection  with  the  Auchmuty 
family.  The  firs',  of  the  name  to  settle  in  America  was 
Robert  Auchmuty — born  in  Fifeshire,  in  1670.  His 
American  experiences  seem  to  have  been  confined  to 
Boston,  where  he  appears  to  have  arrived  in  1699,  and 
at  once  assumed  a  prominent  position  as  a  lawyer.  He 
was  active  in  local  affairs,  and  was  held  in  general  es 
teem.  In  1741  he  was  sent  to  England  as  agent  for  the 
Colony  of  Massachusetts,  an  appointment  that  is  suffi 
cient  testimony  to  his  standing  as  a  citizen  and  his  hon 
esty  as  a  man.  He  died,  in  Boston,  in  1750.  His  eldest 
son  succeeded  to  his  law  business,  and  carried  it  on  in 
Boston  until  1776,  when,  being  an  intense  loyalist,  he 
left  the  country  and  went  to  Britain,  where  he  remained 
till  his  death.  " 

A  younger  son,  Samuel,  born  in  Boston  in  1722,  was 


3C8  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

educated  for  the  ministry,  and  became  assistant  rector  of 
Trinity  Church,  New  York,  becoming  rector  in  1764. 
The  Revolution  brought  him  into  a  sea  of  troubles.  -As 
intensely  loyal  as  his  brother,  he  continued  to  read  pray 
ers  for  George  III.  long  after  the  Revolution  had  broken 
out  and  the  rule  of  monarchy  was  declared  at  an  end. 
When  ordered  by  Gen.  Alexander,  titular  Earl  of  Stir 
ling,  to  discontinue  such  loyal  petitions,  he  closed  the 
church  and  left  the  city.  New  York  was  at  that  time  in 
possession  of  the  Continental  troops,  and  when,  by  a 
turn  in  the  tide  of  war,  it  fell  again  into  the  hands  of  the 
British,  in  1777,  Dr.  Auchmuty  returned  to  his  post  of 
duty,  only  to  find  his  beloved  church  in  ruins  and  its 
records  destroyed.  The  shock  was  too  much  for  him, 
and  he  died,  broken-hearted,  in  March,  1777.  His  son, 
Samuel,  born  in  New  York  in  1758,  entered  the  British 
Army  and  served  in  it  during  the  Revolutionary  War. 
Obtaining  a  Captaincy,  he  served  in  India  from  1783 
to  1796,  and  in  1800  was  in  Egypt  under  Abercrombie. 
In  1803,  for  his  services,  he  was  knighted,  and  soon 
after  proceeded  to  South  America,  where  he  distin 
guished  himself  by  his  skill  and  bravery.  In  1811  he 
reduced  Java,  and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  best  of 
ficers  in  the  service.  Returning  to  Britain,  he  was  com 
missioned  a  Lieutenant  General  in  1813.  He  died  at 
Dublin,  in  1822,  while  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  forces 
in  Ireland,  leaving  behind  him  the  record  of  a  long  and 
honorable  career,  unmarked  by  reproach  or  blame. 

In  the  history  of  the  City  of  Richmond,  one  of  the 
most  prominent  of  its  residents  in  civil  life  during  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  for  many  years  after  it  had  be 
come  reminiscent,  was  John  ..Haryije^.  a  native  of  the  Par7 
ish  of  Gargunnock,  Stirlingshire.  He  was  born  abcA.it 
1740,  and  is  believed  to  have  emigrated  to  the  Colonies 
shortly  after  reaching  his  majority.  He  settled  in  Albe- 
marle' County,  Va.,  and  began  the  practice  of  law.  In 
this  he  was  eminently  successful,  and  his  ability  was  so 
generally  acknowledged  that  in  1774  he  was  commis 
sioned  by  the  General  Assembly  to  make  a  treaty  with 
the  Indians,  a  task  that  was  always  reckoned  a  delicate 


STATESMEN     AND     POLITICIANS.  3Q9 

one,  requiring  unlimited  diplomacy,  cool  judgment,  and 
the  utmost  firmness.  He  also  threw  himself  devotedly 
into  the  cause  of  the  Colonies  against  the  motherland, 
and  in  1775  and  1776  represented  Augusta  County  in 
the  Virginia  Conventions  of  these  years.  Then  he  was 
sent  to  Congress,  where  he  served  during  two  eventful 
years,  and  he  afterward  held  several  State  offices,  in 
cluding  that  of  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Vir 
ginia.  His  latter  years  were  spent  in  Richmond,  and  he 
took  an  active  part  in  every  movement  designed  to  add 
to  the  importance  and  beauty  of  that  city.  Indeed,  it 
was  while  superintending  the  erection  of  a  handsome 
new  building  which  he  intended  to  be  an  ornamental 
landmark  that  he  met  with  the  accident  which,  in  1807, 
caused  his  death. 

Another  Indian-treaty-making  Scot  was  David  Brodie  i 
Mitchell,  a  native  of  Paisley,  who  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  1 
1783,  in  his  seventeenth  year,  to  take  possession  of  some  ' 
property  in  Georgia  which  had  been  bequeathed  to  him 
by  his  uncle,  David  Brodie.  He  took  up  his  headquar 
ters  in  Savannah,  and  the  work  necessary  to  enable  him 
to  acquire  his  property  led  to  his  devoting  himself  to  the 
study  of  law,  and  in  due  time  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar,  having  assumed  citizenship  in  the  young  Republic. 
His  studies  were  so  well  directed  to  acquiring  the  mas 
tery  of  his  profession  that  he  soon  enjoyed  a  widespread 
reputation  as  a  lawyer,  and,  in  1795,  was  chosen  to  be 
Solicitor  General  of  Georgia.  A  year  later  he  was  elect 
ed  to  the  State  Legislature,  and  he  was  afterward  elected 
several  times  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  each 
term  justified  the  public  confidence  by  the  executive 
qualities  he  displayed.  In  his  dealings  with  the  Indians 
he  was  ever  just  and  humane.  In  any  treaty  negotia 
tions  he  tried  to  be  honorable  in  his  claims  and  conces 
sions,  and  his  treatment  of  these  people  won  for  him 
their  regard.  Gov.  Mitchell  also  took  a  deep  interest  in 
educational  matters,  and  did  much  to  extend  their  prog 
ress  in  the  State  he  had  adopted,  and  which  he  loved  and 
served  so  well. 

A  curious  instance,  for  America,  of  a  man  eminently 


\ 


310  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

fitted  for  public  life,  yet  utterly  regardless  of  its  honors 
— a  man  with  ability  to  have  reached  and  retained  a  high 
position  in  the  service  of  the  country,  yet  who  preferred 
the  pleasures  of  home  life  to  the  allurements  of  office — is 
afforded  by  a  consideration  of  the  career  of  John  Greig 
of  Canandaigua.  Born  at  Moffat,  Dumfries,  in  1779, 
and  educated  at  Edinburgh  University,  he  settled  in 
America  in  1800,  and  applied  himself  to  the  practice  of 
law.  He  in  time  acquired  a  competency,  and,  though 
often  urged  to  run  for  Congress,  he  steadily  refused,  ex 
cepting  once.  He  had  hosts  of  admirers,  and  the  grace 
ful  hospitalities  which  were  so  marked  a  feature  of  his 
home  life  made  him  even  better  understood  and  more 
endeared  to  his  associates  and  friends  than  though  he 
had  met  their  wishes  and  embarked  on  the  stormy  and 
uncertain,  sometimes  dirty,  sea  of  politics.  Among  oth 
ers  of  his  guests  was  the  illustrious  Lafayette,  the  "  pa 
triot  of  two  hemispheres,"  as  he  has  been  called,  who 
was  entertained  by  Greig  on  his  triumphal  return  visit 
to  the  States  in  1824.  In  1825  Greig  accepted  the  office 
of  Regent  of  the  State  University,  hoping  thereby  to  do 
some  service  to  the  cause  of  education,  and  he  attended 
to  the  duties  of  the  office  with  all  the  zeal  they  gave  op 
portunity  for.  He  was  induced  to  stand  as  a  representa 
tive  of  his  district  for  Congress,  and  was  elected  in  1841, 
but  he  served  only  one  term,  having  no  taste  either  for 
life  in  Washington  or  the  duties  and  requirements  of  a 
Congressman.  So  he  gladly  retired  when  the  term  for 
which  he  was  elected  had  expired,  and  returned  to  his 
home  and  his  law  practice.  In  1845  ne  was  made  Chan 
cellor  of  the  State  University,  and  that  position,  of  which 
he  was  very  proud,  he  retained  until  his  death,  at  Canan- 
daigua,  in  1858. 

It  may  have  been  noticed  in  the  last  few  cases  men 
tioned,  and  in  several  others  in  the  course  of  this  vol 
ume,  how  easily  and  naturally  many  Scots  on  settling  in 
America,  turned  to  the  law  as  a  profession.  Another  and 
conspicuous  instance  of  this  was  Judge  Mitchell  King. 
He  was  born  at  Crail,  Fifeshire,  in  1783.  In  1805  he 
began  his  long  connection  with  the  City  of  Charleston 


STATESMEN     AND     POLITICIANS.  311 

by  securing  an  appointment  as  an  assistant  teacher  in 
Charleston  College,  having  been  a  teacher  for  a  short 
time  before  leaving  Scotland.  While  attending  to  his 
duties  in  the  college  and  prosecuting  the  studies  neces 
sary  to  advancement  in  the  teaching  profession,  he  saw 
that  there  were  more  possibilities  in  the  practice  of  law, 
and  in  1807  he  began  its  study.  Three  years  later  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  gradually  won  a  front  rank. 
In  1819  he  became  a  Judge  of  the  Charleston  City  Court, 
and  served  on  the  bench  many  years.  Throughout  his 
career  Judge  King  took  a  deep  interest  in  what  is  now 
called  "  higher  education."  He  founded,  in  1809,  the 
Philosophical  Society  of  Charleston  and  lectured  before 
it  frequently,  and  he  was  the  author  of  many  treatises  on 
scientific  and  agricultural  subjects.  An  exemplary 
American  citizen,  Judge  King  seemed  to  grow  more 
and  more  enthusiastic  over  his  native  land  as  time  cast 
it  deeper  into  the  shadows  of  remembrance,  and  his  na 
tionality  was  always  with  him  a  matter  of  pri'de.  In  1808 
he  joined  the  Charleston  St.  Andrew's  Society,  and 
served  it  in  many  ways,  notably  as  its  President  for  sev 
eral  terms.  In  1829,  when  that  organization  celebrated 
its  centenary,  he  delivered  an  oration  which  is  a  model 
of  its  kind.  Judge  King  continued  to  take  an  active 
part  in  the  work  of  the  society,  and  so  to  do  something 
for  puir  Auld  Scotland's  sake,  until  his  death,  at  Flat- 
wick,  N.  C.,  in  1862,  when  his  adopted  country  was  in 
the  throes  of  the  great  civil  war. 

Hugh  Maxwell  of  New  York,  one  of  the  best  known 
and,  in  some  quarters,  best  hated,  of  the  public  men  of 
that  city  in  his  day,  was  equally  conspicuous  during  his 
life  for  his  prominence  in  Scottish  circles.  The  older  he 
got,  the  closer  Scotland  came  to  him,  although  in  his 
case  the  love  was  purely  sentimental,  as  he  was  carried 
from  his  native  city  of  Paisley  when  very  young.  He 
was  born  there  in  1787.  His  early  schooling  was  in  one 
of  the  grammar  schools  of  New  York,  and  he  studied  at 
Columbia  College  with  the  view  of  engaging  in  the  prac 
tice  of  law,  and  passed  successfully.  He  began  business 
as  an  attorney  soon  after  he  attained  his  majority,  and  in 


312  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

1814  was  appointed  an  Assistant  Judge  Advocate  Gen 
eral  in  the  United  States  Army.  In  1819  he  was  elected 
District  Attorney  of  New  York,  and  won  a  flattering 
reputation  in  his  administration  of  that  difficult  and  un 
enviable  position.  He  so  won  the  confidence  of  the  pub 
lic  that  he  was  again  elected  to  the  office,  and  continued 
to  hold  it  until  1829.  He  was  truly  a  terror  to  evil-doers, 
uniting  the  cleverness  of  a  detective  to  the  genius  of  a 
lawyer,  and  leaving  no  effort  undone  to  bring  the  guilty 
to  book.  But  he  never,  like  so  many  modern  prose 
cuting  attorneys,  rejoiced  in  a  conviction  for  the  sake  of 
conviction  alone.  He  shielded  the  innocent  as  deter 
minedly  as  he  crushed  the  guilty,  and,  unlike  some  of 
his  successors,  never  used  his  office  to  aid  a  "  pull  "  or  to 
defeat  the  majesty  and  power  of  the  law.  He  took  a  par 
ticularly  active  part  in  the  prosecution  of  the  so-called 
"  conspiracy  trials,"  which  created  a  great  amount  of 
excitement,  at  the  time.  Mr.  Maxwell's  work  in  this  con 
nection  raised  up  for  him  many  enemies,  among  them 
Halleck,  the  poet,  who  held  him  up  to  ridicule  in  some 
rather  commonplace  verses. 

Mr.  Maxwell's  last  public  office  was  that  of  Collector 
of  the  Port  of  New  York,  which  he  held  between  the 
years  1849  an^  l852,  covering  the  terms  of  the  Adminis 
trations  of  Presidents  Taylor  and  Fillmorc.  In  the  St. 
Andrew's  Society,  of  which  he  became  a  member  in 
1811,  he  passed  through  the  office  of  manager  and  the 
Vice  Presidential  chairs  to  the  Presidency,  which  he  held 
in  1835  ancl  l836,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1873, 
he  had  long  been  the  oldest  living  member,  having  paid 
dues  into  its  treasury  for  sixty-two  years. 

A  public  man  of  a  stamp  not  too  common  in  America, 
one  who  united  the  shrewdness  of  a  lawyer,  the  breadth 
of  a  statesman,  and  the  humble  piety  and  aggressive 
zeal  of  a  true  Christian,  must  be  the  verdict  of  every  one 
who,  after  a  study  of  his  career,  passes  judgment  on 
Walter  Lowrie,  for  many  years  Secretary  of  the  United 
States  Senate.  Born  in  Edinburgh  in  1784,  he  settled 
with  his  parents  in  Pennsylvania  in  1791.  He  was 
brought  up  on  a  farm  owned  by  his  father,  a  man  of  sin- 


STATESMEN     AND     POLITICIANS.  313 

cere  piety,  who,  although  unable  to  give  his  son  a  thor 
ough  general  education,  took  care  that  his  religious 
training  was  as  full  and  deep  reaching  as  though  he  were 
designed  for  the  ministry.  This  was,  in  fact,  the  utmost 
legacy  the  Scottish  farmer  could  give  his  son,  but  it  was 
enough,  as  a  foundation,  to  carry  him  safely  through  life 
and  exalt  him  to  high  places. 

When  eighteen  years  of  age,  Lowrie  resolved  to  study 
for  the  ministry,  but  after  a  time  he  abandoned  the  idea 
and  determined  to  enter  the  legal  profession.  When 
twenty-seven  years  of  age  his  neighbors,  with  a  high  ap 
preciation  of  his  character,  elected  him  as  their  repre 
sentative  in  the  Senate  of  Pennsylvania.  After  serving 
in  that  body  for  seven  years,  he  was  chosen  as  one  of 
the  Senators  from  his  State  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
and  when  his  term  expired,  in  1824,  he  was  elected  Sec 
retary  of  the  Senate,  and  held  that  important  office  for 
twelve  years,  when  he  voluntarily  retired,  to  the  regret 
of  all  the  members  of  that  body. 

The  rest  of  Mr.  Lowrie's  life  was  spent  in  doing  good, 
and  the  influence  he  exerted,  even  upon  Congress,  was 
very  great.  He  founded  the  Congressional  prayer  meet 
ing-,  and  was  active  in  the  formation  of  the  Congres 
sional  Temperance  Society,  and,  although  these  institu 
tions  have  now  long  been  abandoned,  they  did  much 
good  in  their  day,  and  some  time  in  the  future  their  in 
fluence  may  be  revived.  In  1836  Mr.  Lowrie  was  elected 
Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Western  Foreign  Mis 
sionary  Society,  and  in  the  following  year  was  called  to 
a  similar  position  in  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  which  latter  office  he  held  for 
thirty-two  years.  He  was  particularly  interested  in  the 
evangelization  of  the  American  Indian  tribes,  and  spent 
much  time  in  visiting  the  red  men  on  their  reservations 
and  throughout  the  West.  It  is  impossible  to  calculate 
the  full  value  of  this  man's  life  work.  Wherever  he 
went,  his  thoughts  were  always  directed  to  noble  ends, 
and  his  blameless  career  as  a  politician  stands  out  in 
pleasant  relief  in  the  somewhat  muddy  atmosphere  of 
American  practical  politics.  Several  of  his  sons,  emu- 


314  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

lating  his  example,  became  missionaries  of  the  Gospel 
in  foreign  lands,  and  his  eldest  son  succeeded  him  in  the 
Secretaryship  of  the  Presbyterian  Foreign  Mission 
Board,  after  preaching  the  Gospel  in  India  for  three 
years,  and  so  having  practical  experience  in  that  noblest 
of  all  the  outcomes  of  Christian  practice  and  teaching., 

In  1765  there  arrived  in  Boston  from  Dornoch,  Suth- 
erlandshire,  a  Scotch  crofter-fisherman  named  Adam 
McCulloch.  He  settled  at  Arnndel,  afterward  known  as 
Kennebunkport,  in  Maine.  He  joined  in  with  the  Revo 
lutionary  movement  and  accepted  citizenship  in  the 
young  Republic  with  equanimity,  and,  if  he  did  not  wax 
rich,  he  at  least  became  comfortable  in  his  circumstances 
through  his  own  exertions,  although  the  life  of  a  pio 
neer  in  Maine  in  those  days  was  one  of  much  hardship 
and  danger.  His  son  became  a  ship  owner,  and  when 
the  War  of  1812  broke  out  was  one  of  the  largest  mer 
chants  of  the  ship-owning  class  in  New  England  and  in 
a  fair  way  to  becoming  one  of  the  recognized  wealthy 
men  of  the  northern  seaboard.  The  business  interests 
of  Maine,  however,  suffered  sadly  in  the  war,  and  the 
ship  owner  sustained  such  losses  that  his  operations  had, 
temporarily,  to  come  to  a  complete  standstill.  His  son 
Hugh — the  grandson  of  the  Scotch  crofter— who  had 
been  born  at  Kennebnnk  in  1808,  had  been  entered  a 
student  at  Bowdoin  College,  but  his  health  gave  way, 
and  this,  together  with  the  condition  of  his  father's  finan 
cial  affairs,  caused  him  to  leave  the  institution  long  be 
fore  the  usual  course  was  completed. 

At  seventeen  years  of  age,  Hugh  McCulloch  began  to 
earn  his  own  living  by  teaching  school,  and  continued 
at  that  occupation  until  1829,  when  he  commenced  the 
study  of  law.  That  study  he  completed  in  Boston  in 
1832,  and  a  year  later  he  went  to  Fort  Wayne  and  en 
tered  upon  the  practice  of  his  chosen  profession.  But  it 
was  soon  discovered  that  his  talents  were  those  of  a 
financier  rather  than  a  lawyer,  and  he  entered  on  his  real 
career,  when,  in  1835,  he  became  manager  of  one  of  the 
branches  of  the  State  Bank  of  Indiana.  A  year  later  he 
became  one  of  the  Directors,  and  finally,  as  President  of 


STATESMEN     AND     POLITICIANS.  315 

a  great  banking  company,  became  known  as  one  of 
the  financial  authorities  in  the  West.  He  entered  public 
life  in  1863,  when  he  accepted  from  Secretary  Chase  the 
position  of  Controller  of  the  Currency,  and  in  1865  he 
became  himself  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  with  a  seat  in 
President  Lincoln's  Cabinet,  and  he  continued  to  hold 
the  office  under  President  Johnson.  When  his  term  ex 
pired  he  retired  from  official  position,  until,  at  President 
Arthur's  request,  he  again  returned  to  the  Cabinet  as  the 
head  of  the  Treasury.  From,  that  time  he  lived  mainly 
in  retirement,  enjoying  the  glorious  sunset  of  a  busy 
life,  until  his  death,  in  1895. 

Hugh  McCulloch  was  by  no  means  what  is  commonly 
regarded  in  the  States  as  a  politician.  He  had  no  polit 
ical  fences  to  keep  in  order,  no  wires  to  manipulate,  no 
leaders  to  conciliate,  or  heelers  to  propitiate.  Every 
public  office  he  held  came  to  him  unsolicited,  and  he 
cared  nothing  for  intrigues  or  for  personal  popularity. 
He  did  simply  what  he  thought  was  right;  he  had  no 
motive  in  any  of  his  acts  as  a  public  man  beyond  serv 
ing  the  best  interests  of  the  country.  In  the  Cabinet 
councils  his  cool,  practical,  common-sense  viewr  of  what 
ever  topic  came  up  for  discussion  proved  of  incalculable 
value,  and  his  shrewdness  and  sterling  honesty  were  al 
ways  conspicuous.  In  the  Treasury  Department  his 
policy  was  always  regarded  as  safe,  and  his  reputation 
as  a  financier  was  of  infinite  value  to  the  country,  espe 
cially  immediately  after  the  war,  when  so  many  wildcat 
schemes  were  on  foot.  His  innate  Scotch  practical  nat 
ure  showed  him  clearly  that  there  was  no  royal  road  to 
national  wealth,  no  sidetracks  from  the  strait  path  of 
national  integrity. 

An  equally  noteworthy  exponent  of  Scotch  industry, 
honesty,  and  common  sense  was  James  Gilfillan,  who 
from  1869  till  his  death,  in  1895,  was,  with  the  exception 
of  a  short  interval,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Minnesota.  Judge  Gilfillan  was  born  at  Bannock- 
burn  in  1829,  and  was  brought  to  this  country  in  his 
childhood.  He  received  his  early  education  in  New 
York  City,  studied  law  at  Ballston  Spa  and  Buffalo,  and 


3lG  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

in  1850  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Albany.  He  prac 
ticed  at  Buffalo  for  some  seven  years,  and  then  removed 
to  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  which  became  his  home  city  there 
after.  When  the  civil  war  started  he  joined  the  Seventh 
Minnesota  Regiment,  and  in  1862  was  commissioned  as 
Colonel  of  the  Eleventh  Minnesota.  He  commanded 
that  regiment  until  it  was  mustered  out  of  service  at  the 
close  of  hostilities,  in  June,  1865.  He  then  settled  down 
again  to  the  practice  of  law  at  St.  Paul.  In  1869  he  was 
appointed  Chief  Justice  of  Minnesota,  to  fill  a  vacancy, 
and  held  a  seat  on  the  bench  until  the  next  election.  In 
1875  he  was  again  appointed  temporarily,  but  at  the 
election  that  year  he  was  elected  to  it  by  the  votes  of  the 
people,  and  his  subsequent  re-elections  demonstrated 
their  satisfaction  with  his  services.  During  his  long 
term  on  the  bench  not  a  whisper  was  ever  heard  reflect 
ing  on  his  impartiality,  and  his  thorough  knowledge  and 
grasp  of  the  law,  national  as  well  as  State,  was  conceded. 
His  opinions  and  judgments  were  models  in  their  way. 
They  were  couched  in  plain  language,  and  terse  in  their 
expression  and  so  written  that  they  could  be  clearly 
understood  by  whoever  chose  to  read  them,  a  quality 
which  is  seldom  characteristic  of  legal  documents  of  any 
kind.  It  seems  essential  to  the  extreme  sentiment  of 
trades  unionism  which  prevails  in  the  legal  profession  to 
clothe  everything  with  a  disheartening  and  unmeaning 
mass  of  verbiage,  as  well  as  to  multiply  forms  and  pro 
cedures,  and,  of  course,  costs.  This  brings  grist  to  the 
legal  mill,  but  is  of  no  service  for  any  other  purpose  in 
the  world — certainly  not  for  any  purpose  of  right  or  of 
justice.  Some  day  this  extraneous  mass  of  legal  cob 
webs  will  be  swept  away  by  a  disgusted  people,  and 
then  Judge  Gilfillan's  clear-cut  decisions  may  be  taken 
as  models  of  what  such  judicial  utterances  ought  to  be — • 
terse,  sound,  logical,  and  conclusive,  and  thoroughly  un 
derstandable  by  any  man  possessing  mere  common  sense. 
A  jurist  with  an  even  more  national  reputation  was  (or 
is,  for  he  still  lives  in  honorable  retirement,)  Arthur  Mac- 
Arthur,  who  in  1887  retired  from  the  bench  as  Asso 
ciate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 


STATESMEN     AND     POLITICIANS.  317 

under  the  act  which  permits  judicial  retirement  after  the 
occupant  of  the  bench  has  reached  the  allotted  span  of 
threescore  years  and  ten.  Judge  MacArthur  was  born 
at  Glasgow  in  1815,  and  settled  in  America  when  very 
young.  In  1841  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  New- 
York,  and  began  practice  at  Springfield,  Mass.  In  1849 
he  removed  to  the  then  new  city  of  Milwaukee,  resolved 
to  "  grow  up  "  with  it,  and  two  years  later  was  elected 
its  City  Attorney.  In  1855  he  was  elected  Lieutenant 
Governor  of  Wisconsin,  and  acted  as  Governor  for  a 
time.  His  first  appointment  to  the  bench  was  in  1857, 
when  he  became  Judge  of  the  Second  Judicial  District 
of  the  State,  and  was  re-elected  in  1863.  He  was  called 
to  the  Supreme  Court  in  1870,  and  in  that  position  his 
merits  as  a  jurist  became  recognized  all  over  the  coun 
try.  With  the  exception  of  serving  as  one  of  the  United 
States  Commissioners  to  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1867, 
Judge  MacArthur  has  held  no  other  public  office,  con 
fining  himself  mainly  to  the  pursuit  of  his  profession, 
and,  as  a  recreation,  to  the  study  of  literary  and  his 
torical  subjects.  As  an  orator  he  held  high  rank  in  Wis 
consin,  where  his  principal  efforts  in  that  line  were 
made,  and  his  services  as  a  lecturer  were  for  many  years 
in  constant  demand.  In  the  St.  Andrew's  Society  of 
Milwaukee  he  was  long  a  leading  figure,  presided, over  it 
for  several  terms;  and  at  its  banquets  on  St.  Andrew's 
Day,  or  in  connection  with  the  Burns  anniversary  cele 
brations,  his  presence  and  speeches  were  for  years  re 
garded  as  prominent  features. 

Another  noted  figure  in  public  life,  who  began  his  ca 
reer  as  a  lawyer,  was  James  Burnie  Beck,  for  many 
years  United  States  Senator  from  Kentucky.  He  was 
born  in  Dumfriesshire  in  1822,  and  settled  with  his 
parents  in  Lexington,  Ky.  He  was  elected  to  the  lower 
house  of  Congress  in  1867,  and  served  until  1875, 
(through  four  terms,)  and  was  then  chosen  one  of  the 
representatives  of  his  adopted  State  in  the  National  Sen 
ate,  and  so  continued  till  his  death,  in  1889.  He  was 
noted  in  public  life  as  an  authority  on  financial  and  cur^ 
rency  matters,  and  was  devoted  in  his  adherence  to  free- 


318  THE     SCOT    IN     AMERICA. 

trade  principles.  His  honesty  was  admitted  on  every 
side,  and  his  addresses  on  any  question  were  listened  to 
with  marked  attention,  for  his  ripe  judgment  and  wide 
range  of  information  made  his  utterances  well  deserving 
of  careful  consideration.  He  had  a  contempt  for  such 
legislative  pranks  as  filibustering,  or  talking  against 
time,  and,  although  pronounced  in  his  own  opinions  and 
zealous  in  every  cause  he  adopted,  he  never  stooped  to 
tactics  that  were  unworthy  of  his  high  legislative  posi 
tion  or  derogatory  to  the  assembly  of  which  he  was  a 
member.  Scotsmen  in  the  lower  house  of  Congress 
have  been  plentiful  enough  all  through  its  history,  and 
in  the  Fifty-first  Congress,  for  instance,  there  were  no 
fewer  than  five  Congressmen — D.  B.  Henderson  of  Du- 
buque,  Iowa,  a  native  of  Old  Deer,  Aberdeenshire;  Da 
vid  Kerr  of  Grundy  Centre,  Iowa,  a  native  of  Dairy, 
Ayrshire;  J.  M.  Farquhar  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  a  native  of 
Ayr;  W.  G.  Laidlaw  of  Ellicottville,  N.  Y.,  a  native  of 
Jedburgh,  and  John  L.  Macdonald  of  Shakopee,  Minn. 
This,  considering  that  Scotsmen  do  not  take  profession 
ally  to  politics,  like  their  Irish  cousins,  seems  to  us  a 
pretty  fair  showing. 


CHAPTER    XL 

AMONG     THE     WOMEN 

IN  the  course  of  the  present  work  we  nave  several 
times  mentioned  the  name  of  women  who  have,  for  some 
laudable  reason  or  other,  acquired  publicity  or  deserved 
remembrance.  But  even  with  the  mention  of  these,  scant 
justice  has  been  done  to  the  claims  of  "  the  lassies  "  to  a 
share  in  all  that  has  made  the  Scottish  name  honorable  in 
America.  It  may  not  therefore  be  inappropriate  to  make 
the  ladies  the  text  for  one  chapter  in  this  book,  and  in 
the  few  names  we  will  mention  we  are  sure  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  fair  sex  has  not  been  behind  the  other  in  good 
deeds  and  kindly  ways.  It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  get 
information  regarding  women's  work,  for  most  of  them 
prefer  to  do  what  good  they  can  without  attracting  pub 
licity,  and  in  the  quiet  of  the  domestic  circle  many  mat 
ters  have  been  suggested  and  planned  and  projected 
which  have  done  grand  work  in  the  world.  The  Scotch 
woman  is  naturally  a  housewife,  bending  her  energies  to 
the  care  of  the  home  in  which  she  is  recognized  as  queen, 
and  planning  and  contriving  day  out  and  day  in  for  the 
comfort  of  those  who  look  to  her  for  all  the  pleasures 
which  are  associated  with  domestic  life.  If  she  be  blessed 
with  children  her  whole  heart  goes  out  to  them,  and  in 
the  development  of  their  minds,  their  physical  and  mental 
progress,  as  well  as  their  material  welfare,  she  devotes 
herself  with  a  degree  of  self-abnegation  which  is  one  of 
the  highest  and  grandest  tributes  to  the  real  majesty  of 
her  sex.  But  for  having  been  left  a  widow,  with  a  young 
family  totally  unprovided  for,  it  is  questionable  if  Mrs. 
Grant  of  Laggan  would  ever  have  aspired  to  the  honors 
of  authorship  or  emerged  from  the  happy  obscurity  of 
319 


320  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

her  own  fireside.  That  wonderful  and  irrepressible  pro 
duction  of  nature  and  art  generally  called  "  a  woman  with 
a  mission  "  has  her  representatives  in  and  out  of  Scotland, 
but  as  a  general  rule  Scotswomen  who  have  become  fa 
mous  have  become  so  by  force  of  circumstances  bring 
ing  into  action  their  innate  sentiments  of  patriotism, 
charity,  and  love.  Outside  of  the  people  of  the  stage  and 
concert  platform,  and,  of  course,  outside  of  the  woman 
with  the  aforesaid  mission  whose  vanity  is  the  cause  of 
all  her  silliness,  we  never  yet  heard  of  a  Scotswoman  who 
started  out  in  life  or  cut  out  a  career  for  herself  with  the 
idea  of  becoming  famous  or  of  even  acquiring  undue  pub 
licity.  The  fame  which  has  come  to  so  many  of  them  has 
been  the  result  of  work  well  done,  of  service  to  God  and 
humanity  faithfully  rendered,  and  of  simple,  trustful  de 
votion  to  duty  in  whatever  sphere  and  circumstances 
they  happened  to  be  placed. 

From  a  historical  standpoint,  the  most  famous  of  all 
the  women  of  Scotland  who  have  had  a  home  in  America 
was  Flora  Macdonald,  the  noblest  of  all  the  heroines 
whose  name  comes  down  to  us  with  that  of  Bonnie 
Prince  Charlie.  She  was  a  simple,  honest  Highland  girl, 
with  wonderful  strength  of  mind,  fertility  of  resource, 
rigid  devotion  to  whatever  she  deemed  to  be  right;  a 
brave  heart,  with  all  a  woman's  modesty  and  grace. 
Judging  her  by  the  portraits  which  have  come  down  to 
us,  she  was  by  no  means  a  beauty;  her  features  were  in 
teresting  rather  than  prepossessing,  but  she  had  a  won 
derful  pair  of  eyes  that  lighted  up  her  countenance,  and 
the  vivacity  of  her  conversation,  the  charm  of  her  smile, 
and  the  sprightliness  of  her  slim  figure  more  than  com 
pensated  for  mere  beauty  of  features.  She  played  a  diffi 
cult  part,  under  peculiar  circumstances,  and  in  company 
with  a  man  whose  love  for  the  fair  sex  often  overcame 
his  sense  of  duty  and  interfered  even  with  the  progress 
of  his  life  ambition,  yet  against  her  personal  repute  no 
whisper  has  yet  been  raised,  and  she  emerged  from  the 
ordeal  of  her  life  as  simple  and  honest  a  Highland  lass 
as  she  was  before  she  ever  risked  her  liberty  and  reputa 
tion  to  save  the  head  of  the  young  Chevalier. 


AMONG   THE   WOMEN.  321 

Flora  Macdonald,  the  daughter  of  Macdonald  of  Mil 
ton,  in  South  Uist,  was  born  there  in  1722.  Her  father, 
who  was  what  was  known  as  a  tacksman — a,  farmer  of 
means  apart  from  the  income  of  the  land  he  leased — 
died  when  Flora  was  a  child,  and  her  mother  some  years 
afterward  married  Macdonald  of  Armadale,  in  the  Isle  of 
Skye,  who,  during  the  rebellion,  was  on  the  side  of  the 
Government  and  commanded  one  of  the  militia  com 
panies  raised  for  King  George's  service  by  Sir  Alexander 
Macdonald.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be  said  that,  though 
arrayed  against  Prince  Charlie,  Flora's  stepfather  not 
only  wished  no  harm  to  befall  the  Prince,  but  once  at 
least  aided  very  materially  in  his  escape.  Flora  was  in 
her  twenty-fourth  year  when  she  entered  on  her  romantic 
task  and  the  details  of  her  wanderings  with  the  "  King 
o?  the  Highland  Hearts  "  are  too  well  known  to  need  re 
capitulation  here.  The  whole  episode  lasted  only  a  few 
weeks,  but  during  that  time  Flora's  services  won  for  her 
a  niche  among  the  heroines  of  Scotland  and  a  place  in 
the  hearts  of  the  Highlanders  only  second  to  that  of  the 
Wanderer,  for  the  disclosure  of  whose  identity  a  fortune 
was  offered  without  effect. 

After  the  Prince  had  escaped,  Flora  was  arrested  and 
carried  to  London  a  prisoner,  but  her  treatment  was  of 
the  most  lenient  description.  After  receiving  attentions 
that  might  have  turned  the  head  of  any  young  woman 
less  endowed  with  strong  common  sense  than  herself, 
after  being,  in  fact,  one  of  the  pets  of  a  London  season, 
she  was  permitted  to  reside  under  a  sort  of  parole  in  the 
house  of  a  private  family  in  the  metropolis  until  after  the 
passing  of  the  act  of  indemnity  in  July,  1746,  when  she 
was  formally  set  at  liberty  and  returned  to  her  beloved 
Highlands.  In  1750  she  married  Alexander  Macdonald, 
younger,  of  Kingsburgh,  a  family  that  had  much  to  do 
with  the  escape  of  Prince  Charles. 

In  1773  Macdonald,  like  many  other  Flighlanders, 
hearing  of  the  ease  with  which  large  tracts  of  land  were 
acquired  by  settlement  in  the  New  World,  determined  to 
emigrate,  and  a  year  later  found  him  and  his  devoted 
wife  and  family  settled  at  Fayetteville,  North  Carolina. 


322  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Around  that  place  at  that  time  there  were  hundreds  of 
Highlanders,  many  of  whom  had  settled  in  America  after 
Culloden,  and  it  is  said  that  Gaelic  was  very  generally 
spoken  in  six  counties,  with  Fayetteville  as  a  centre.  We 
can  imagine  with  what  enthusiasm  the  Highland  chief 
and  his  heroic  wife  were  received  on  their  arrival.  They 
afterward  resided  at  Cameron  Hill,  not  far  from  Fayette 
ville,  and  Macdonald  was  preparing  to  settle  down  to  his 
new  way  of  life  when  the  grumblings  which  presaged  the 
Revolution  drove  an  element  of  uncertainty  into  Colonial 
life.  When  hostilities  opened,  Macdonald  drew  his  sword 
as  loyally  to  support  the  Government  of  King  George 
as  ever  Highland  sword  was  drawn  for  the  Stuarts,  and 
accepted  a  commission  in  a  detachment  raised  among 
the  Highlanders  of  North  Carolina  in  1775  to  form  part 
of  the  Royal  Highland  Emigrant  Regiment.  This  com 
mand  was  made  up  of  veterans,  mainly  in  Canada,  and 
its  headquarters  were  there.  Drawn  from  various  settle 
ments,  the  men  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  to  their 
rallying  place  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  the 
detachment  to  which  Macdonald  belonged,  besides  the 
fatigue  of  the  weary  miles  that  separated  Canada  from 
Carolina,  had  to  face  armed  resistance  to  their  progress, 
and  finally  were  forced  to  break  up  into  small  parties, 
and  reached  their  destination  by  various  routes.  Mac 
donald  saw  much  active  service  in  Canada,  was  in  Quebec 
when  it  was  defended  against  Arnold  and  when  the 
American  leader  Montgomery  fell,  and  took  part  in  vari 
ous  minor  enterprises. 

In  1783,  when  hostilities  were  over,  Macdonald,  who 
had  attained  the  rank  of  Captain  and  could  have  obtained 
an  extensive  grant  of  land  in  Nova  Scotia,  preferred  to 
return  to  his  native  land  on  half  pay.  On  the  journey 
across  to  Scotland  the  vessel  on  which  the  Macdonalds 
were  was  attacked  by  a  French  privateer,  and  in  the  en 
counter  Flora's  natural  courage  asserted  itself.  She  re 
fused  to  seek  safety  below,  and  remained  on  deck,  ani 
mating  the  seamen  and  rushing  from  place  to  place  where 
a  word  might  do  good  or  a  little  assistance  help  matters. 
In  the  course  of  the  fray  her  arm  was  broken,  but  she 


AMONG     THE     WOMEN.  323 

had  the  consciousness  of  having  aided  in  winning  a  vic 
tory.  After  many  other  adventures  the  party  reached 
Skye  in  safety  and  never  afterward  left  it.  Flora  died  in 
1790  and  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  burial  ground  of  the 
Kingsburgh  family,  at  Kilmuir,  and  in  1796  her  husband 
was  laid  beside  her.  They  had  a  family,  says  Dr.  Car- 
ruthers,  of  five  sons  and  two  daughters.  "  The  sons  all 
became  officers  in  the  army  and  the  daughters  officers' 
wives."  None  of  the  family  became  conspicuous  except 
ing  Lieut.  Col.  John  Macdonald.  He  was  born  in  Skye 
in  1759  and  entered  the  service  of  the  East  India  Com 
pany,  attaining  the  rank  of  Captain  of  Engineers.  His 
scientific  attainments  were  very  great,  and  he  was  a  fre 
quent  contributor  to  the  transactions  of  learned  societies, 
while  on  military  matters  he  was  an  advanced  critic,  and 
the  many  works  on  that  science  which  he  published  dur 
ing  his  career  were  judged  to  be  of  the  highest  practical 
value  by  those  qualified  to  estimate.  In  1800  he  was  ap 
pointed  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  the  Clan  Alpine  regiment, 
a  command  of  Highlanders  raised  by  Col.  Alexander 
Macgregor  Murray  and  enrolled  at  Stirling  in  1797  for 
service  in  any  part  of  Europe.  Col.  Macdonald  served 
with  this  regiment  in  several  parts  of  Ireland,  and  con 
tinued  its  active  head  until  it  was  disbanded  at  Stirling, 
in  1802.  In  his  later  years  he  paid  great  attention  to  the 
science  of  telegraphy  in  its  relation  to  the  military  and 
naval  services  especially,  and  published  in  1816  a  Tele 
graphic  Dictionary  of  some  150,000  words,  phrases,  and 
sentences,  which  was  regarded  as  a  model  of  ingenuity 
and  usefulness.  He  died  at  Exeter,  full  of  years  and 
honors,  in  1831. 

In  the  whole  gallery  of  notable  and  noble  women  of 
the  world  no  figure  stands  out  in  more  beautiful  relief 
than  that  of  Isabella  Graham  of  New- York  as  an  ex 
ample  of  constant  endeavor  in  doing  her  Master's  work, 
in  the  accomplishment  of  much  practical  good,  and  for 
her  own  sweet,  blameless  life.  She  knew  what  it  was  to 
suffer,  she  had  to  face  the  world  as  a  breadwinner  for  her 
family,  she  felt  what  it  was  to  be  poor,  yet  she  never  lost 
her  faith  and  never  was  so  poor  that  she  had  not  some- 


324  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

thing  to  give  to  those  whose  necessities  were  even  greater 
than  her  own.  Much  of  what  she  accomplished  still  re 
mains  actively  at  work  in  the  city  which  was  so  long  her 
home  and  with  which  her  memory  is  most  identified,  and, 
although  her  name  is  now  almost  forgotten  by  the  pass 
ing  throng,  the  influence  she  exerted  upon  the  commu 
nity  is  year  after  year  bringing  forth  fruit. 

Mrs.  Graham  was  the  daughter  of  John  Marshall,  a 
farmer  in  Lanarkshire.  She  was  born  at  Heads,  in  the 
Parish  of  Glassford,  in  1740,  and  soon  afterward  her 
parents  removed  to  a  farm  at  Elderslie,  near  Paisley, 
where  she  spent  her  early  years  and  received  her  educa 
tion.  Dr.  Witherspoon,  afterward  President  of  Prince 
ton  College,  was  at  that  time  a  minister  in  Paisley,  and 
under  his  teaching  the  maiden  so  grew  in  religious 
knowledge  and  conviction  that  she  was  admitted  to  the 
communion  table  in  her  seventeenth  year,  an  early  age 
in  Scotland  at  that  time.  As  Scotchwomen  often  say,  her 
troubles  began  when  she  was  married.  In  1765  she  was 
wedded  to  Dr.  John  Graham,  a  surgeon  in  Paisley.  He 
\vas  soon  afterward  appointed  Surgeon  in  the  Sixtieth 
Regiment,  and  two  years  later  the  young  wife  accom 
panied  him  to  his  post  of  duty  at  Quebec.  Mrs.  Graham 
was  not  altogether  displeased  with  Quebec,  but  her 
heart  yearned  for  "  hame."  She  did  not  in  particular  like 
the  idea  of  attending  a  Presbyterian  service  in  a  Roman 
Catholic  church.  The  images,  altars,  pictures,  etc., 
seemed  out  of  place  in  a  house  of  worship,  but  as  she 
grew  to  take  no  notice  of  them  she  hoped  that  "  the 
Almighty,  who  knows  the  heart,  would  not  be  offended 
at  our  being  there."  From  Quebec  the  regiment  went  to 
Montreal,  thence  to  Niagara,  and  in  1774  to  the  Island 
of  Antigua.  There  Dr.  Graham  died  of  fever,  and  his 
widow,  with  three  little  daughters  and  a  baby  son,  was 
left  almost  penniless. 

She  managed  to  return  to  Scotland,  and,  finding  her 
father  a  widower  and  poor,  she  supported  herself  and 
little  ones  by  establishing  a  small  school  in  Paisley.  This 
was  so  successful  that  she  was  soon  able  to  remove  to 
Edinburgh,  where  she  opened  a  boarding  school,  and 


AMONG     THE     WOMEN.  325 

prospered  exceedingly.  As  her  means  grew  she  took  an 
active  part  in  charitable  work,  to  which  she  scrupulously 
devoted  a  tenth  part  of  all  her  earnings.  She  organized  a 
Penny  Bank  to  encourage  the  very  poor  to  save,  and  out 
of  that  institution  grew  the  Society  for  the  Relief  of  the 
Destitute  Sick,  which  is  still  actively  carrying  on  its 
blessed  work  in  Auld  Reekie.  We  need  not  mention 
Mrs.  Graham's  career  in  her  native  land  further  than  to 
say  that  she  earned  a  living  for  herself  and  little  ones  as 
a  teacher,  did  much  good  among  the  poor,  and  raised  up 
for  her  household  many  friends. 

Among  these  were  Mrs.  Scott,  (mother  of  Scotland's 
great  novelist  and  poet,)  and  the  sainted  Lady  Glenorchy, 
whose  story  is  one  of  the  many  refreshing  bits  of  biog 
raphy  of  which  the  lives  of  Scottish  religious  women 
have  been  so  productive.  Lady  Glenorchy  had  the  warm 
est  admiration  for  Mrs.  Graham,  and  entered  into  her 
charitable  and  religious  schemes  with  much  zeal.  She 
took  her  daughter,  Joanna,  to  her  home  for  a  time,  and 
then  sent  her  to  Rotterdam  to  complete  her  studies.  Mrs. 
Graham  attended  this  Christian  lady  during  the  illness 
which  ended  in  her  death,  and  was  by  her  will  the  recip 
ient  of  a  bequest  of  £200. 

In  1789,  at  the  request  of  Dr.  Witherspoon  and  other 
friends  in  New- York,  Mrs.  Graham,  with  her  bairns, 
settled  in  New- York.  Soon  after  she  landed  she  opened 
a  school,  and  within  a  month  had  fifty  pupils.  Until  1798, 
when  she  retired,  she  ranked  among  the  most  successful 
teachers  in  the  American  commercial  metropolis.  But, 
deeply  interested  as  she  was  in  the  cause  of  education, 
she  delighted  more  than  all  things  else  in  "  going  about 
doing  good."  She  wrote  her  own  religious  experiences 
and  thoughts  and  had  them  printed  in  tract  form  from 
time  to  time,  and  these  she  distributed  with  her  own 
hands  in  the  houses  of  the  very  poor,  hoping  that  her 
practical  sympathy  for  them  in  their  sorrows  and  suffer 
ings  would  cause  them  to  take  to  their  hearts  the  higher 
message  she  brought.  A  tenth  of  her  income,  as  in  Edin 
burgh,  was  still  regularly  distributed  in  relieving  the  dis 
tressed,  and  as  her  goodness  and  gentleness  and  patient 


326  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

tenderness  became  understood  and  appreciated,  this 
brave,  God-fearing  Scotchwoman  entered  harmlessly, 
and  was  even  welcomed  into  places — they  could  hardly 
be  called  homes — where  many  men  would  not  have  dared 
to  penetrate.  Her  pastor,  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Mason,  was 
amazed  at  her  courage,  and  reproached  her  for  her  te 
merity,  but  she  never  faltered  in  carrying  on  her  self- 
appointed  work  among  the  poor.  Remembering  her  own 
forlorn  and  helpless  condition  when  her  husband  died, 
she  was  especially  interested  in  cases  where  the  bread 
winner  of  a  family  had  been  removed,  and  by  her  kindly 
sympathy  softened  the  blow  of  many  a  bitter  bereave 
ment. 

In  her  school  work  Mrs.  Graham  was  very  effectively 
aided  by  her  children,  but  her  main  reliance  seems  to 
have  been  on  her  daughter  Joanna.  The  school,  it  may 
be  said,  from  the  first  was  a  financial  success,  the  Gra 
hams  were  soon  in  fairly  comfortable  circumstances,  and 
were  welcomed  into  the  best  and  most  refined  society  in 
New  York. 

As  might  be  expected  in  a  girl  who  had  enjoyed  the 
care  of  such  a  mother  as  Isabella  Graham,  and  the  friend 
ship  of  a  woman  like  Lady  Glenorchy,  Joanna  was,  from 
her  earliest  years,  animated  by  a  deeply  religious  spirit. 
When  she  settled  in  New  York,  in  her  nineteenth  year, 
her  sentiments  were  as  fixed  as  ever.  One  gentleman — 
an  Irishman — who  was  paying  her  attentions,  said  that 
when  he  married  her  he  would  take  her  where  she  would 
never  hear  the  sound  of  a  church  bell.  That  settled  his 
case.  Her  next  wooer  was  a  wealthy  merchant,  but  she 
declined  his  proffers  for  some  reason.  Then  Divie 
Bethune,  at  that  time  a  young  merchant  on  Broadway, 
near  Wall  Street,  without  a  superabundance  of  means, 
laid  siege  to  her  heart,  and  in  proposing,  according  to 
her  story,  "  adverted  to  his  poverty  and  talked  much  of 
living  by  faith."  She  construed  this  to  mean  that  Divie 
was  not  in  circumstances  to  support  her,  and  so  refused 
him.  But  Divie  had  a  stanch  ally  in  Mrs.  Graham,  who 
thought  him  one  of  the  best  men  in  the  world,  and  so, 
when  the  young  woman  told  her  mother  of  the  inter- 


AMONG     THE     WOMEN.  327 

view  and  its  result,  the  good  old  lady  simply  said:  "  Jo 
anna,  if  he  has  asked  you  in  faith,  he'll  get  you  in  spite  of 
your  teeth."  Divie  did  not  take  "  no  ''  for  an  answer,  and 
in  July,  1795,  the  two  were  married. 

From  that  time  Mrs.  Graham  and  Mrs.  Bethune  and 
her  husband  were  united  in  every  good  work — a  glorious 
trio  whose  highest  aim  was  to  do  good  through  the  spirit 
of  the  Saviour,  and  until  death  stepped  in  and,  one  after 
the  other,  carried  them  off  to  a  higher  sphere,  the  life 
story  of  the  three  run  on  the  same  lines. 

Mrs.  Bethune's  active  career  in  well-doing  commenced 
with  her  marriage,  and  here  it  may  be  said  that  a  happier 
union  than  that  of  the  Bethunes,  during  the  twenty-nine 
years  it  lasted,  could  hardly  be  imagined.  During  part  of 
that  time  old  Mrs.  Graham  was  a  member  of  the  house 
hold,  and  the  warmest  affection  animated  every  one  in 
the  home.  Mrs.  Graham  and  Divie  Bethune  were  hand 
in  hand  in  all  good  works,  and  Divie  had  a  theory  that 
women  understood  the  practical  workings  of  benevolence 
and  Christian  endeavor  better  than  men,  and  so  was  ever 
willing  to  follow  the  lead  of  his  wife  and  his  mother- 
in-law. 

Divie  Bethune  was  a  native  of  Ross-shire,  a  Presbyte 
rian,  and  an  honest,  conscientious,  God-fearing  man.  He 
had  fairly  prospered  in  business,  was  not  rich  by  any 
means,  but  had  established  a  trade  that  promised  steady 
and  increasing,  if  not  extravagant,  returns.  He  was  act 
ive  in  Scotch  matters,  for  he  was  an  enthusiast  in  all 
things  pertaining  to  his  native  land,  and  in  the  cause  of 
religion  he  was  noted  from  his  arrival  in  New  York  for 
his  earnest  and  faithful  work.  He  appointed  himself  a 
missionary  among  the  poor,  and  gave  away  hundreds  of 
Bibles  and  good  books  while  relieving  the  pressing  ne 
cessities  of  each  case  of  actual  poverty  with  a  liberal 
hand.  No  wonder  that  the  heart  of  Isabella  Graham 
warmed  to  this  typical  Scottish  merchant  as  soon  as  she 
became  acquainted  with  him,  and  that  it  was  with  peculiar 
satisfaction  she  witnessed  his  marriage  to  her  daughter 
Joanna.  While  Mrs.  Graham  lived  she  and  her  son-in- 
law  were  associated  in  many  Christian  enterprises,  and 


328  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Divie  Bethune  revered  her.  In  her  later  years,  especially, 
Mrs.  Graham  mainly  made  her  home  "  at  Divie- s,"  and 
nowhere  was  she  more  warmly  welcomed.  We  hear  a 
good  deal  of  mothers-in-law.  They  are  credited  with 
causing  much  trouble  and  any  amount  of  fun,  and  an 
incredible  number  of  silly  jokes  have  been  concocted  at 
their  expense.  In  this  case,  Mrs.  Graham  loved  her  son- 
in-law  as  a  mother  loves  her  son,  and  he  looked  up  to 
her  with  truly  filial  affection.  A  day  or  two  before  her 
death,  in  1814,  she  penned  the  following  tribute  to  his 
worth  in  a  letter  to  a  friend:  "According  to  knowledge, 
observation,  and  even  investigation,  Divie  Bethune 
stands,  in  my  mind,  in  temper,  conduct,  and  conversation, 
the  nearest  to  the  Gospel  standard  of  any  man  or  woman 
I  ever  knew  as  intimately.  Devoted  to  his  God,  to  his 
Church,  to  his  family,  to  all  to  whom  he  may  have  oppor 
tunity  of  doing  good,  duty  is  his  governing  principle." 

In  1796  Divie  Bethune  was  one  of  the  managers  of  the 
St.  Andrew's  Society,  and  had  personally  to  attend  to  the 
distribution  of  its  charity  along  with  the  other  managers, 
for  these  officials  at  that  time  were  the  almoners  of  the 
organization.  Bethune,  of  course,  had  to  refuse  relief 
from  the  funds  to  many  worthy  applicants  whose  cases 
did  not  come  properly  within  the  province  of  the  society, 
and  Mrs.  Bethune  at  once  saw  the  necessity  for  a  general 
organization  which  would  help  the  most  pressing  at  least 
of  such  cases.  Woman-like,  her  heart  went  out  to  the 
widows  with  young  children,  and,  besides  helping  such 
cases  as  her  means  permitted  and  collecting  aid  for  them 
among  her  acquaintances,  she  set  about  the  formation  of 
a  society  which  would  more  systematically  do  the  work. 
She  found  able  coadjutors  in  her  husband  and  in  her 
mother,  and  in  the  same  year  the  Society  for  the  Relief 
of  Poor  Widows  with  Small  Children  was  organized,  and 
it  exists  to  this  day. 

Thus  the  influence  for  good  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society 
was  shown  in  a  direction  which  its  members  never  antici 
pated  ;  but  it  was  destined  to  bear  still  further  fruit.  When 
the  widows'  society  had  been  in  operation  for  a  few  years 
it  was  seen  that  its  scope  was  not  broad  enough  to 


AMONG     THE     WOMEN.  329 

enable  it  to  assist  orphan  children;  so  in  1806  the  Orphan 
Asylum  of  New  York  was  organized,  mainly  by  the  efforts 
of  Mrs.  Graham  and  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Bethune,  and  it 
is  still  one  of  the  most  active  charities  of  this  city.  Divie 
Bethune  called  the  meeting  which  led  to  the  organiza 
tion,  and  while  he  lived  spent  much  of  his  Sundays  in 
the  asylum  and  was  ever  ready  to  help  it.  For  half  a 
century  Mrs.  Bethune  was  active  in  the  work  of  superin 
tending  the  asylum,  and  only  retired  from  her  labors 
when  advanced'  age  incapacitated  her.  It  is  curious  to 
think  how  these  two  societies — the  one  for  widows  and 
children  and  the  other  for  orphans — really  owed  their 
origin  to  the  election  of  Divie  Bethune  as  a  manager  of 
the  St.  Andrew's  Society. 

In  1801  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bethune  visited  Scotland,  and 
one  result  was  the  real  beginning  of  the  Sabbath  school 
movement  in  this  country.  The  first  Sabbath  school  in 
America  of  which  we  have  record  was  founded  by  Quak 
ers  in  Philadelphia  in  1791.  In  1792  Mrs.  Graham  organ 
ized  a  Sunday  school  for  young  women  in  New-York. 
While  in  Scotland  Mrs.  Bethune  saw  the  importance  of 
such  schools,  as  we  now  understand  them,  for  religious 
instruction,  and  began  at  once  an  effort  to  have  the  same 
missionary  spirit  at  work  among  the  children  here  that 
she  saw  in  her  motherland.  Ill  health,  family  cares,  and 
the  amount  of  work  already  on  hand  prevented  her  from 
making  headway  with  her  project,  and  the  war  of  1812 
put  an  end  to  it  altogether  apparently,  but  Mrs.  Bethune 
never  relaxed  in  her  purposes,  and  even  when  the  project 
seemed  hopeless  continued  in  correspondence  with  friends 
in  Scotland  so  as  to  keep  posted  on  the  varying  phases 
of  the  Sabbath  school  movement  there.  At  length,  in 
1816,  by  the  organization  of  the  Female  Sabbath  School 
Union  of  New- York,  the  real  foundation  of  the  present 
/system  in  this  country  was  laid,  and  by  her  work  in  this 
/  connection  Mrs.  Bethune  fairly  earned  her  title  ot 
\  "  Mother  of  Sabbath  Schools  in  America." 

Divie  Bethune  died  in  1824  and  his  widow  survived 
until  1860,  and  until  the  infirmities  of  years  compelled  her 
to  stand  aside  she  continued  her  interest  in  all  good  work. 


^, 


330  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

It  is  impossible  in  this  place  to  enter  into  details  re 
garding  other  spheres  of  Joanna  Bethune's  usefulness,  of 
her  work  in  Church  matters,  in  infant  schools,  in  indus 
trial  schools,  and  in  practical  benevolence  of  all  kinds. 
She  was  not  a  "  woman  with  a  mission,"  but  a  woman 
with  a  dozen  missions,  and  her  whole  life  of  ninety  years 
may  justly  be  said  to  have  been  spent  in  doing  her  Mas 
ter's  work.  Busy  as  she  was,  her  home  duties  were  never 
neglected,  and  few  men  had  a  happier  home  than  Divie 
Bethune,  and  few  children  had  more  of  a  mother's  care 
than  did  her  own  beloved  little  ones. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  imagine  a  life  more  pure,  more 
holy,  more  devoted  to  doing  good,  more  self-denying, 
more  full  of  humble  faith,  than  that  of  Isabella  Graham, 
and  the  same  may  be  said  of  her  daughter  Joanna.  Both 
women  had  their  share  of  the  trials,vexations,  and  sorrows 
of  this  life,  yet  they  never  faltered  in  their  devoted  trust 
or  in  their  implicit  faith  that  all  things  are  ordered  for 
the  best.  The  life  of  Mrs.  Bethune,  like  that  of  her 
mother,  showed  that  sectarian  differences  are,  after  all, 
divisions  in  name  only,  and  that  religion  and  good  works 
break  down  the  barrier  of  the  issues  which  have  arisen  to 
distract  Christianity  from  the  pre-eminence  of  the  real 
message  of  the  Gospels.  Mrs.  Graham  rejoiced  to  see 
that  her  lifework  was  certain  to  be  carried  on  by  her 
daughter,  and  the  daughter  in  her  turn  saw  her  son 
preaching  the  Gospel  with  much  acceptance  and  fruit. 

That  son,  the  Rev.  Dr.  G.  W.  Bethune  of  Brooklyn, 
was  born  in  New  York  in  1805,  and  after  being  educated 
at  Dickinson  College  and  at  Princeton,  became  in  1828 
pastor  of  a  Dutch  Reformed  Church  at  Rhinebeck,  N.  Y. 
His  next  charge  \vas  at  Utica,  and  in  1843  ne  went  to 
Philadelphia.  In  1849  ne  was  called  to  take  charge  of  a 
newly  organized  congregation  in  Brooklyn,  and  remained 
there  ten  years,  when  he  went  to  Italy  in  search  of  health. 
He  returned  after  a  time,  resumed  his  pastoral  labors  in 
Brooklyn,  and  made  a  notable  public  appearance  and 
eloquent  oration  at  a  meeting  held  in  New  York  to  advo 
cate  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  on  April  20,  1861. 
Shortly  afterward  his  health  again  gave  way  and  he  re- 


AMONG     THE     WOMEN.  331 

turned  to  Italy,  where  he  died  suddenly,  in  1862.  He  was 
eloquent  as  a  preacher,  faithful  in  the  administration  of 
his  pastoral  work,  and  won  the  love  of  every  congrega 
tion  to  which  he  ministered.  His  published  writings  were 
many,  and  his  prose  works  were  noted  for  their  chaste  dic 
tion  and  the  clearness  and  crispness  of  their  style.  As  a 
theologian  he  was  not  only  profound,  but  had  the  happy 
art  of  stating  even  the  most  profound  truths  in  language 
that  a  child  might  understand.  But  it  is  as  a  poet  that  he 
will  be  remembered  in  connection  with  literature,  and  his 
"  Lays  of  Love  and  Faith  "  stamped  him  as  a  writer  of 
rich  fancy  and  one  possessing  true  poetic  insight  and 
sentiment.  In  his  poetry,  too,  we  find  the  true  patriotism 
of  Isabella  Graham  and  his  father  and  mother  repro 
duced  and  perpetuated,  for  it  was  the  hallowed  influence 
of  Divie  Bethune's  fireside  that  inspired  in  after  years 
his  son  to  pen  that  most  popular,  and  to  the  Scot  abroad 
most  dear,  of  modern  Scottish  lyrics : 

"  O !  Sing  to  me  the  auld  Scotch  sangs, 

F  the  braid  Scottish  tongue, 
The  sangs  my  father  loved  to  hear, 

The  sangs  my  mither  sung 
When  she  sat  beside  my  cradle, 

Or  croon'd  me  on  her  knee; 
An'  I  wadna  sleep,  she  sang  sae  sweet, 

The  auld  Scotch  sangs  to  me." 

A  very  pronounced  type  of  the  woman  with  a  mission, 
but  so  earnest  in  her  mission  that  she  had  none  of  the 
peculiarities  which  inspire  contempt  or  arouse  amuse 
ment  for  that  class,  was  Fanny  Wright,  after  whom,  in 
the  early  anti-slavery  days,  so  many  abolitionist  societies 
were  named.  She  was  born  at  Dundee  in  1795,  and  in 
early  life  made  a  special  study  of  Smith's  "  Wealth  of  Na 
tions  "  and  other  works  on  political  philosophy.  She  de 
veloped  into  a  close  and  original  thinker  on  such  topics, 
and  her  earliest  publication  was  a  defense  of  the  doc 
trines  of  Epicurus. 

From  1818  till  1821  she  resided  in  the  United  States, 


332  THE    SCOT   IN   AMERICA. 

mainly  engaged  in  travel  and  paying  particular  attention 
to  the  social  and  religious  communities  then  in  existence, 
and  to  the  slavery  question  in  all  its  bearings.  Then  she 
returned  to  Europe  and  traveled  over  the  Continent, 
gathering  new  ideas  and  adding  to  her  store  of  know 
ledge  as  she  journeyed.  In  1825  she  determined  to  turn 
her  accomplishments  to  some  practical  purpose,  and  ac 
cordingly  returned  to  America  to  wrestle  with  the  slave 
problem.  She  bought  some  2,500  acres  of  land  in  Ten 
nessee  as  a  place  for  the  residence  of  emancipated 
negroes,  so  that,  dwelling  together  in  a  compact  colony, 
they  might  not  only  acquire  a  sense  of  independence  by 
earning  their  own  livelihood,  but  be  sufficiently  under 
her  control  that  she  might  readily  put  into  practice  several 
theories  she  had  formed  for  their  advancement.  The 
colony,  however,  turned  out  a  failure.  The  time  was  not 
ripe  then  for  such  an  attempt.  Though  disheartened 
greatly  at  the  upshot  of  this  well-meant  endeavor,  she 
did  not  abandon  the  cause  of  the  slave,  and  by  her  lect 
ures  and  speeches  did  much  to  foster  and  strengthen  the 
sentiment  against  the  accursed  traffic,  which  was  then 
becoming  a  live  issue  in  public  affairs  in  the  Northern 
States.  It  is  singular  that,  though  retaining  her  Scotch 
accent,  she  had  no  difficulty  in  rousing  her  audiences, 
the  very  earnestness  of  her  manner  making  all  else  be  for 
gotten  while  she  occupied  the  platform. 

Becoming  acquainted  with  Robert  Dale  Owen,  Miss 
Wright  adopted  many  of  that  dreamer's  ideas  and  tried 
to  aid  him  in  his  work  at  the  settlement  at  New-Har 
mony,  Ind.  She  edited  the  "  Gazette  "  there,  and  worked 
hard  to  make  the  experiment  a  success,  but  her  nature 
and  that  of  Owen  were  not  congenial,  and  she  abandoned 
the  enterprise.  Crossing  the  ocean  again,  she  took  up 
her  residence  in  Paris  and  married  a  Frenchman  named 
D'Arusmont,  but  marriage  is  never  a  happy  state  for  a 
woman  with  a  mission,  and  this  union  was  not  a  fortu 
nate  one.  The  pair  separated,  and,  making  her  home 
once  more  in  the  United  States,  the  gifted  Scotchwoman 
entered  upon  a  busy  career,  writing  and  lecturing  on 
social  and  religious  topics,  and  advancing  often  such  ex- 


AMONG     THE     WOMEN.  333 

treme  and  outre  views  as  to  subject  her  to  persecution, 
ridicule,  and  sometimes  opprobrium.  She  was  a  volumi 
nous  writer,  although  little  that  came  from  her  pen  now 
survives.  But  such  books  as  her  "  Views  on  Society  and 
Manners  in  America  "  and  "  Lectures  on  Free  Inquiry  " 
were  much  read  and  discussed  in  their  day.  She  essayed 
poetry  also,  but  it  has  passed  away  into  the  misty  sea 
where  nearly  all  literary  efforts,  with  the  exception  of  a 
comparatively  few,  sooner  or  later  find  their  way,  and 
even  her  tragedy  of  "  Altorf,"  which  was  produced  at  the 
Park  Theatre,  in  New  York,  in  1817,  has  long  since  been 
forgotten.  She  died  at  Cincinnati  in  1852.  She  was  a 
woman  whose  thoughts  were  constantly  directed  away 
from  self  to  doing  good  in  the  world,  and,  while  we  may 
regard  her  energies  and  endeavors  to  have  been  to  a 
great  extent  wasted,  and  her  life  to  that  extent  a  failure, 
we  should  not  forget  her  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  slave, 
exerted  at  a  time  when  such  efforts  were  comparatively 
few,  and  to  believe  that  she  in  that  respect  at  least  did 
much  good  and  aided  very  greatly  in  the  progress  of  the 
movement  which,  once  started,  could  have  no  other  ter 
mination  than  equal  rights  in  free  America  for  all  men, 
black  or  white. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PUBLIC     ENTERTAINERS. 

SCOTTISH  entertainments  and  entertainers  have  from 
a  very  early  period  been  remarkably  popular  in  America. 
When  the  country  had  grown  populous  enough  to  give 
the  drama  a  foothold,  Scotch  actors  were  very  numer 
ously  represented  among  the  followers  of  the  Thespian 
art  who  ventured  to  cross  the  Atlantic  and  find  a  new 
field  for  their  talents.  While,  like  most  pioneers,  they  did 
not  themselves  fare  very  well  at  the  hands  of  fortune, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  they  started  the  American  stage  on 
a  high  level,  so  that  it  is  to-day  the  equal  of  any  stage 
in  the  world,  not  even  excepting  those  of  London  and 
Paris.  Scottish  music,  too,  has  invariably  been  popular 
here,  and,  although  they  seem  unable  to  grasp  the  de 
lightful  smoothness  of  the  grand  old  Doric,  a  privilege 
only  vouchsafed  (except  in  a  few  instances)  to  a  native, 
many  American  amateurs  sing  the  songs  of  the  "  Land 
of  the  Kilt  and  Feather  "  with  a  degree  of  taste  and  with 
so  thorough  an  appreciation  as  to  warm  the  heart  of  even 
the  most  obdurate  of  Scottish  listeners.  Of  course,  a 
Scotsman  would  any  day  prefer  to  hear  his  country's 
songs  sung  by  a  native,  but  the  perfection  attained  in 
the  singing  of  these  by  those  who  are  not  natives,  and 
especially  by  non-natives  who  are  of  the  tender  sex,  is 
gratifying  at  once  to  his  patriotism  and  his  musical  sen 
timents.  At  times,  too,  one  who  is  not  a  native  struggles 
so  successfully  with  the  vernacular  that  it  is  difficult  to 
detect  a  false  accent,  and,  to  take  an  illustrious  instance, 
it  may  be  remarked  that  Sims  Reeves  when  singing  a 
Scotch  song  presented  the  Doric  so  faultlessly  as^to  give 
the  Glasgow  folks  a  chance  for  ventilating  a  tradition  that 

334 


PUBLIC     ENTERTAINERS.  335 

the  greatest  of  English  tenors  used  in  his  younger  days 
to  act  in  a  booth  on  the  Green,  Glasgow's  historic  public 
park,  and  that  he  there  learned  how  to  sing! 

One  of  the  first  of  really  great  Scottish  singers  to  try  his 
fortune  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  was  John  Sinclair,  a 
native  of  Edinburgh,  where  he  was  born  in  1793.  He 
made  his  first  appearance  in  America  in  the  old  Park 
Theatre,  New- York,  in  1837,  when  he  appeared  as 
Francis  Osbaldistone.  An  old  Scot  who  was  present  on 
that  evening  has  left  on  record  a  statement  that  he  had 
never  before,  not  even  in  "  Auld  Reekie,"  heard  "  The 
Macgregors'  Gathering "  sung  with  more  fire,  or  "  My 
Love  Is  Like  a  Red,  Red  Rose  "  with  more  sweetness. 
Possibly  this  was  because  absence  from  home  had  sharp 
ened  his  sympathies,  and  the  sentiments  which  arise  when 
a  wanderer's  thoughts  turn  back  to  "  Auld  Lang  Syne  " 
usurped  the  ordinary  powers  of  criticism  so  natural  in  a 
Scot.  However  this  may  be,  Sinclair  before  visiting  Amer 
ica  had  earned  the  reputation  in  Scotland  of  being  the  best 
living  interpreter  of  his  country's  songs,  and  his  memory 
is  still  kept  green  in  the  musical  history  of  his  native 
land.  He  captured  his  New  York  audience  from  the  mo 
ment  he  first  appeared,  and  his  engagement  was  in  every 
way  a  most  successful  one.  He  repeated  his  success  short 
ly  afterward  at  the  Chestnut  Street  Theatre,  Philadel 
phia,  as  well  as,  later  on,  in  Boston.  At  that  time,  by  the 
way,  a  success  in  Boston  was  as  gratifying  to  an  artist  as 
was  one  in  Edinburgh. 

"  Sinclair,"  once  wrote  John  Forbes  Robertson  ot 
London  to  David  Kennedy,  "  was  a  frank,  genial  fellow, 
["  the  leddies'  bonnie  Sinclair,"  he  used  to  be  called,]  and 
among  his  Scottish  songs  were  '  Hey!  the  Bonnie  Briest- 
knots '  and  one  of  his  own  composition,  t  Come,  Sit  Ye 
Down,  My  Bonny,  Bonny  Love/ "  One  of  Sinclair's 
daughters  married  Edwin  Forrest,  the  famous  tragedian, 
and  the  union  gave  rise  to  one  of  the  most  notable  di 
vorce  trials  ever  held  in  America.  Forrest,  by  the  way, 
claimed  to  have  descended  from  Scotch  ancestors,  and 
asserted  that  Montrose  was  their  old  home.  Sinclair  re 
turned  to  England,  and  died  there  in  1857. 


336  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

The  next  vocalist  from  Scotland  to  visit  these  shores, 
and  the  grandest  of  them  all,  was  John  Wilson,  who  was 
born  at  Edinburgh  in  1800,  and  at  ten  years  of  age  was 
sent  to  learn  the  printing  business.  When  his  appren 
ticeship  was  over  he  became  a  proofreader  in  James  Bal- 
lantyne's  printing  office,  and  is  said  to  have  been  one  of 
the  few  to  whom  the  secret  of  the  authorship  of  the  Wa- 
verley  Novels  was  made  known.  During  this  time,  how 
ever,  he  was  studying  music  and  training  his  voice  to 
speak  as  well  as  sing,  and,  in  spite  of  the  protestations  of 
his  friends,  he  made  his  first  appearance  on  the  stage,  at 
Edinburgh,  in  1830,  assuming  the  character  of  Henry 
Bertram  in  the  opera  of  "  Guy  Mannering."  His  success 
was  complete.  Wilson  determined,  in  the  height  of  his 
powers,  to  make  an  American  tour,  and  he  landed  in  the 
New  World  in  1838,  and  remained  for  two  years.  He 
was  beyond  question  one  of  the  most  accomplished  vo 
calists  of  his  time,  and,  though  he  had  made  a  brilliant 
reputation  on  the  operatic  stage,  and  had  won  laurels  as 
a  writer  and  as  a  composer,  he  was  never  happier  or  bet 
ter  than  when  singing  the  sweet  and  simple  songs  of  his 
"  ain  countrie."  His  entertainments,  such  as  "  A  Nicht 
wi'  Burns,"  or  "  Bonnie  Prince  Charlie,"  proved  wonder 
fully  popular  wherever  he  gave  them,  not  merely  among 
the  Scottish  auditors,  whose  enthusiasm  knew  no  bounds, 
but  among  educated  Americans  and  lovers  of  music  of 
all  classes.  That  he  raised  Scottish  song  to  a  high  de 
gree  of  popularity  goes  without  saying,  and  he  paved  the 
way  for  the  more  complete  financial  success,  long  after 
ward,  of  the  entertainments  of  the  same  class  given  by 
the  late  David  Kennedy. 

In  1849,  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  daughter,  Wil 
son  entered  upon  another  American  tour.  While  at 
Quebec,  he  was  seized  with  cholera  on  July  7,  and  died 
two  days  later.  His  last  wish  was  to  be  buried  in  a  Scot 
tish  grave,  but  the  circumstances  of  the  case  forbade  that 
wish  being  carried  into  effect,  and  the  great  singer  was 
laid  at  rest  in  Mount  Hermon  Cemetery,  Quebec,  and  a 
handsome  memorial  was  erected  over  the  spot  by  his  ad 
mirers.  "  Although  far  from  his  dearly  beloved  '  North 


3PUBLIC     ENTERTAINERS.  337 

Countrie/ "  wrote  Gen.  James  Grant  Wilson  of  New 
York  long  afterward,  "  Wilson  is  surrounded  by  men  of 
his  own  race,  on  whose  tombstones  may  be  seen  Mac 
kenzie  and  Macdougall,  Campbell  and  Grant,  Fraser  and 
Forsyth,  Ross,  Turnbull,  and  other  ancient  Scottish 
names,  many,  if  not  most,  of  them  the  sons  and  grand 
sons  of  the  672  gallant  fellows  of  Fraser's  Seventy-eighth 
Highlanders,  who  followed  Wolfe  up  the  steep  and  nar 
row  escalade  to  the  field  where  he  met  his  fate." 

So  far  as  America  is  concerned,  Wilson's  great  suc 
cessor  as  a  singer  of  Scottish  songs  was  David  Kennedy. 
He  was  born  at  Perth  in  1825,  and  died  at  Stratford, 
Canada,  while  on  a  professional  tour,  in  October,  1886, 
and  for  some  forty  years  he  was  before  the  public  as  a 
singer  of  Scotch  songs.  He  sang  the  ballads  of  his  na 
tive  land  round  the  world,  visiting  India,  Africa,  Aus 
tralia,  as  well  as  every  section  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada.' 

While  Kennedy's  programmes  were  modeled  on  those 
of  Wilson,  and  to  a  great  extent  presented  the  same 
songs,  there  was  a  wide  difference  in  the  style  of  their 
entertainments.  Wilson  was  a  faultless  singer,  a  student 
of  music,  and  as  firm  a  believer  in  the  sweetness,  power, 
and  melody,  native  to  Scotch  music,  as  is  the  modern 
American  dilettante  in  the  genius  of  Richard  Wagner. 
Kennedy  was  by  no  means  so  grand  a  singer  as  Wilson; 
he  never  claimed  to  be  so,  in  fact;  but  he  had  the  knack 
of  getting,  as  it  were,  into  the  heart  of  a  song,  and  mak 
ing  every  shade  of  its  meaning  become  perfectly  clear  to 
his  audiences.  He  was  in  many  ways  the  best  modern 
representative  of  the  old  Scotch  minstrel  we  can  imagine. 
Nobody  ever  excelled  him  in  the  telling  of  an  old  Scotch 
story,  for  he  did  not  merely  repeat  such  tales,  he  acted 
them,  and  filled  the  stage  or  the  platform  with  their  per 
sonages,  and  there  was  that  strong  personal  magnetism 
about  the  man  which  is  so  indispensably  requisite  to 
public  success  on  the  concert  or  lecture  platform. 

The  wonderful  success  of  Wilson  and  Kennedy  in 
duced  many  Scottish  singers,  singly  or  in  groups,  to 
"  cross  the  pond/1  and  since  they  illustrated  the  fact  that 


338  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

there  was  money  in  an  auld  Scotch  song,  there  has  rarely 
been  a  season  when  we  have  not  had  the  pleasure  of  lis 
tening  to  native  talent  of  various  degrees  of  ability.  The 
Fraser  family  of  Paisley  won,  as  they  deserved,  more 
reputation  than  any  of  them,  and  the  Fairbairn  family 
were  also  successful  for  a  time.  Phillis  Glover,  wife  of 
Thomas  Powrie,  the  once-famous  Rob  Roy,  sang  in 
New  York  for  a  season  in  1875,  and  might  have  done 
well  had  not  domestic  trouble  prevented  her  from  taking 
advantage  of  her  opportunities.  William  Gourlay,  one 
of  the  Edinburgh  family  of  that  name,  essayed  a  season 
in  New  York  in  1877  with  his  "  Mrs.  MacGregor's 
Levee,"  but  failed.  Hamilton  Corbett  would  have  made 
a  fortune  had  he  been  gifted  with  as  much  strength  of 
will  as  beauty  of  voice,  and  that  might,  too,  be  said  of  a 
score  of  others  whose  names  need  not  be  repeated  here. 
We  cannot,  however,  forbear  a  line  to  the  memory  of 
Jeannie  Watson,  one  of  the  sweetest  female  singers  of 
Scottish  songs  we  ever  listened  to,  and  who,  after  a  life 
of  misfortune,  now  lies  at  rest  in  the  burial  plot  of  the 
St.  Andrew's  Society  of  Toronto.  She  was  a  brilliant 
successor  to  such  singers  as  Miss  Reynolds  and  Miss 
Sutherland.  The  latter,  who  made  her  American  bow  at 
a  ballad  concert  in  New  York  on  July  16,  1857,  won  high 
rank  as  a  ballad  singer,  and  was  especially  a  favorite  in 
Scottish  circles.  She  described  herself,  or  her  managers 
described  her,  as  "  the  Scottish  Nightingale/'  and  in  that 
respect  she  was  the  forerunner  of  a  host  of  "  Scottish 
Nightingales,"  "  Queens  of  Scottish  Song,"  and  so  on, 
good,  bad,  and  very  indifferent. 

Turning  to  theatrical  records,  we  are  met  at  the  outset 
by  the  difficulty  of  stage  names  concealing  the  nation 
ality  and  identity  of  many  whose  birth  and  talents  ought 
to  have  given  them  some  mention  in  these  pages.  The 
well-known  antipathy  which  so  long  prevailed  in  Scot 
land  against  "  play  actors  "  led  most  of  the  Scotch  aspi 
rants  to  footlight  fame  to  conceal  their  family  names 
more  closely  than  those  who  adopted  a  stage  name  for 
the  sake  of  its  appearance,  as  Melfort  looks  better  on  a 
programme  than  Hodgkins.  But  both  Scotch  plays  and 


PUBLIC     ENTERTAINERS.  339 

Scotch  players  have  won  more  than  ordinary  popularity 
in  America. 

In  the  early  dramatic  history  of  the  United  States  the 
play  that  appears  to  have  been  the  most  general  favorite 
was  Home's  now  almost  forgotten  tragedy  of  "  Doug 
las."  Probably  more  American  amateurs  made  their  first 
bow  before  the  public  as  professionals  in  the  character  of 
Norval  than  in  any  other  up  to  the  close  of  the  first  half 
of  this  century,  and  in  early  American  playbills  it  con 
stantly  held  a  place.  The  best  Scotch  personator  of  the 
character  here  was  Henry  Erskine  Johnston,  who  made 
his  first  American  appearance  in  the  National  Theatre, 
New  York,  in  1838,  in  the  character  of  Sir  Pertinax  in 
the  still  popular  play  of  "  The  Man  of  the  World.'1  John 
ston  was  a  good  and  painstaking  actor  of  the  old  school, 
and  his  Norval  won  thunders  of  applause  in  all  the  prin 
cipal  cities  of  the  country,  North  and  South.  He  played 
in  the  States  only  one  season,  and  returned  to  Britain, 
dying  there  shortly  after,  in  1840. 

Roderick  Dhu  was  another  Scotch  character  which 
was  a  favorite  with  the  public,  but  it  was  only  in  the  large 
theatres  that  the  necessary  scenic  and  spectacular  display 
could  be  made  to  warrant  the  production  of  its  play, 
"  The  Lady  of  the  Lake."  It  was  placed  upon  the  stage, 
however,  in  Boston  and  New  York,  and  J.  H.  Wallack, 
especially,  made  a  great  hit  as  the  irate  Highland  chief 
tain.  Of  "  Rob  Roys  "  the  American  theatres  were  at 
one  time  full,  and  the  Bowery  boys  used  to  be  as  familiar 
with  the  wrongs  of  the  Macgregors  as  were  the  laddies 
in  "  Auld  Reekie."  None  of  the  great  Scotch  Robs  ever 
came  here,  but  among  its  first  delineators,  if  not  the  very 
first,  was  an  actor  from  Edinburgh  named  Bennett,  who 
had  been  a  member  of  the  company  in  that  city,  playing 
minor  parts,  under  Murray.  He  made  his  opening  bow 
as  Rob  in  the  old  Chestnut  Street  Theatre,  Philadelphia, 
in  1831,  and  was  fairly  successful.  A  much  more  able  rep 
resentative  of  the  great  cateran,  however,  was  Thomas 
F.  Lennox,  a  Glasgow  man,  who  appeared  in  the  charac 
ter  in  the  Chatham  Theatre,  New  York,  in  1838,  and 
made  a  great  hit.  His  personal  appearance  exactly  suited 


340  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

the  cnaracter.  He  had  a  powerful  yet  not  unpleasant 
voice,  and  every  time  he  started  in  to  denounce  the  Sas- 
senachs  he  made  the  gallery  howl  in  chorus.  Lennox 
was  a  good  all-round  actor,  and  a  great  favorite  wherever 
he  appeared.  He  died  at  Memphis,  Tenn.,  in  1849. 

Quite  a  different  sort  of  a  Rob  was  John  Henry  An 
derson,  the  "  Wizard  of  the  North,"  as  he  called  himself 
in  his  advertisements  and  showbills.  He  first  visited  this 
country  in  1851,  and  besides  giving  exhibitions  of  his 
really  wonderful  skill  as  a  magician  produced  "  Rob 
Roy  "  at  Castle  Garden,  this  city,  with  himself  in  the  title 
role.  Its  merit  may  be  understood  from  the  remark  of 
one  of  the  most  competent  American  critics  of  the  time, 
that  "  Anderson  was  a  very  good  magician,  but  a  very 
bad  actor." 

In  one  way  or  another  the  redoubtable  "  Rob  "  has 
had  his  name  kept  pretty  well  before  the  American  pub 
lic,  possibly  because  Sir  Walter  Scott's  novel  of  that 
name  has  enjoyed  a  larger  American  circulation  than 
that  of  any  other  of  the  romances  of  "  The  Author  of 
Waverley."  The  novel  has  appeared  in  nearly  all  the  pop 
ular  "  series  "  of  "  standard  works,"  without  which  no 
American  publisher's  catalogue  seems  complete,  and  in  all 
other  sorts  of  cheap  series  with  which  the  United  States 
market  is  flooded.  Even  James  Grant's  story  of  "  The 
Adventures  of  Rob  Roy"  has. been  issued  in  editions  of 
thousands,  and  in  more  than  one  instance  it  has  been 
given  as  a  "  supplement "  to  a  Sunday  newspaper. 

But  perhaps  the  most  curious  illustration  of  the  popu 
larity  of  the  name  was  when  it  was  used  as  the  title  to  a 
comic  opera  in  which  the  genuine  cateran  did  not  appear 
at  all.  It  was  written  by  a  gentleman  named  Harry  B. 
Smith,  and  from  a  historical  point  of  view  contained 
more  sheer  nonsense  than  possibly  any  other  sta^e  ar 
rangement  seriously  or  humorously  founded  on  history. 
Its  leading  character  was  Rob  Roy  MacGregor,  a  High 
land  Chief,  although  the  cateran  was  not  a  "  chief  "  at  all, 
and  the  cast  describes  him  as  a  follower  of  Prince  Char 
lie,  although  the  real  Rob  died  in  1738,  when  Prince 
Charlie's  ideas  of  Scotland  were  the  primitive  ones  of 


PUBLIC     ENTERTAINERS.  341 

youth.  Then  we  had  the  "  Mayor  "  of  Perth,  who  was  an 
Englishman,  and  who  seemed  to  have  been  the  depos 
itary  of  the  ready  money  which  the  Government  intended 
to  spend  in  subduing-  the  forces  of  Prince  Charlie. 
There  were  all  sorts  of  odd  situations  in  the  play,  one  of 
which  showed  us  Prince  Charlie  as  a  prisoner  in  Stirling 
Castle,  from  which  he  \vas  liberated  by  the  efforts  of 
Flora  Macdonald,  and  the  whole  affair  wound  up  with 
the  marriage,  or  the  arrangements  for  the  marriage,  of 
that  young  lady — who,  by  the  way,  was  dressed  through 
out  in  a  Highland  male  costume — and  the  Prince. 

But  lest  some  of  our  readers  might  think  we  are  exag 
gerating  the  bundle  of  improbabilities  and  absurdities 
thus  presented,  we  reprint  here  the  synopsis  of  the  play 
which  appeared  on  the  official  programme: 

"  The  story  of  '  Rob  Roy '  is  very  interesting,  inas 
much  as  it  is  founded  on  that  romantic  story  of  Sir  Wal 
ter  Scott's  which  deals  with  the  escapades  of  Prince  Ed 
ward  Stewart  the  Pretender  and  his  faithful  follower, 
Rob  Roy  Macgregor.  At  the  opening  of  the  first  act  a 
party  of  Highlanders  make  a  raid  upon  the  house  of  the 
Mayor  of  Perth  and  appropriate  a  sum  of  money  in 
trusted  to  that  worthy  for  English  troops.  The  Mayor 
has  a  fair  daughter,  Janet,  who  is  secretly  married  to 
Rob  Roy.  Owing  to  the  Mayor's  desire  to  keep  on  good 
terms  with  both  the  English  and  the  Scotch,  he  compels 
Janet  to  declare  herself  the  wife  of  first  an  old  Scotchman 
and  then  a  young  English  officer.  As  a  mere  declara^ 
tion  constitutes  a  Scotch  marriage,  Janet  finds  herself  the 
wife  of  three  husbands  belonging  to  opposing  factions. 
Throughout  the  first  act  the  romantic  interest  is  main 
tained  by  Prince  Charlie  and  his  sweetheart,  Flora  Mac 
donald,  whose  adventures  have  historical  foundation.  At 
the  end  of  the  act  Janet  deserts  the  two  husbands  pro 
vided  by  her  father  and  escapes  to  the  Highlands  with 
Rob  Roy.  The  scene  of  the  second  act  is  laid  in  the 
Highlands,  when  the  Scotch  are  in  hiding  after  the  bat 
tle  of  Culloden.  Janet,  as  a  Highland  shepherd,  is  wait 
ing  for  the  return  of  Rob  Roy,  who  is  fighting  at  Cul 
loden.  The  greater  part  of  the  act  is  devoted  to  the 


342  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

machinations  of  the  Highlanders  to  prevent  the  capture 
of  their  bonnie  Prince  Charlie.  The  act  ends  with  Flora 
Macdonald  giving  herself  up  for  the  Prince.  The  third 
act,  which  shows  the  exterior  of  Stirling  Castle  by  moon 
light,  with  the  English  troops  in,  bivouac,  sees  everything 
happily  arranged." 

Amusing  as  this  production  was  on  account  of  its  silly 
distortion  of  historical  matter,  a  distortion  which  was  not 
even  required  by  the  story,  it  was  infinitely  more  respect 
able  than  a  rendering  of  "  Rob  Roy  "  which  was  given  in 
Chicago  in  1895.  We  did  not  see  this  production,  fortu 
nately,  but  the  following  advertisement  of  its  glories  will 
sufficiently  indicate  to  the  reader  its  unique  character: 
'  Rob  Roy '  will  be  given  in  the*  great  amphitheatre, 
Burlington  Park,  Saturday,  Aug.  3,  1895,  under  the  aus 
pices  of  the  Scottish  Assembly.  Twelve  special  acts  will 
be  presented  in  tableaux  and  pantomime.  Sham  battle — 
Highlanders  and  Zouaves  vs.  First  Regiment,  I.  N.  G. 
Thrilling  and  exciting  conflict.  Cannon  roar,  volley 
after  volley  fired,  terrific  fusillade;  with  great  confusion 
the  enemy  is  routed  amid  the  applause  of  10,000  specta 
tors.  The  bold  chieftain  is  free!  The  park  will  be  on 
blaze  during  the  evening  with  electric  lights,  so  that  the 
presentation  of  the  soul-stirring  drama  will  be  produced 
with  all  the  magnificent  splendor  possible." 

But  we  must  return  to  the  players  themselves,  and 
dwell  among  a  few  names  which  are  more  or  less  repre 
sentative,  although  most  of  them  are  now  forgotten,  for 
nothing  is  more  fleeting  and  perishable  than  a  player's 
stage  reputation. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Marriott,  who  came  here  from  Edin 
burgh  in  1794,  made  the  old  John  Street  Theatre  be 
crowded  to  the  doors  each  time  they  appeared  in  "  The 
Fair  Penitent,"  and  they  repeated  that  success  in  Phila 
delphia  and  Boston  and  in  whatever  city  they  performed. 
In  1810,  in  the  same  New  York  theatre,  a  Dundee 
man  named  David  Mackenzie  made  an  equally  great  hit 
as  Flint  in  the  now  long-buried  play  of  "  The  Adopted 
Child."  He  afterward  made  a  very  successful  tour 
through  the  country,  but  for  some  reason  now  unknown 


PUBLIC     ENTERTAINERS.  343 

he  ended  his  life  by  suicide  at  Philadelphia  toward  the 
close  of  1811. 

One  of  the  greatest  favorites  of  the  Bowery  stage 
around  1826  was  a  Fife  man  named  James  Roberts,  who 
was  born  in  1798,  and  died  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  in  1833. 
In  melodrama,  either  as  a  villain  or  as  a  hero,  he  was 
considered  to  have  no  equal.  As  much,  at  least,  might 
be  said  of  Richard  L.  Graham,  a  Glasgow  actor,  whose 
first  appearance  was  made  at  the  National  Theatre,  Phila 
delphia,  in  1840,  and  who  continued  on  the  American 
stage  until  his  death,  at  St.  Louis,  in  1857. 

Another  Scotch  actor  who  was  a  great  favorite  in  his 
time  in  New  York  was  John  Mason,  a  native  of  Edin 
burgh,  who  made  a  hit  on  his  first  appearance  in  Amer 
ica  at  the  old  Park  Theatre  as  Rover  in  "  Wild  Oats." 
He  afterward  studied  medicine,  went  to  New  Orleans, 
and  built  up  there  a  large  and  lucrative  practice. 

P.  C.  Cunningham,  a  Glasgow  man,  visited  America 
first  in  1835,  and  made  his  first  appearance  that  year  in  the 
Warren  Street  Theatre,  Boston.  He  was  especially  noted 
for  his  excellence  as  a  player  of  Irish  characters  and  for 
his  rendering  of  old  men's  parts.  He  closed  his  first  sea 
son  in  America  at  Mitchell's  Olympic,  in  New  York,  and 
then  went  back  to  Britain,  where  he  acted  successfully 
throughout  the  provinces.  He  returned  several  times  to 
this  country,  being  always  certain  of  a  hearty  welcome  on 
account  of  his  merits  as  an  actor.  One  of  his  last  appear 
ances  was  in  1852  at  the  opening  of  the  Arch  Street  The 
atre,  Philadelphia,  when  he  took  the  part  of  Gibby  in 
"  The  Wonder." 

Many  in  the  States  and  Canada  will  remember  the 
tour  of  Sir  William  Don,  a  native  of  Berwick,  in  1850, 
and  the  artistic  success  he  won.  Losing  his  fortune  in 
the  course  of  the  process  known  as  "  sowing  his  wild 
oats,"  he  turned  to  the  stage  as  a  means  for  earning  his 
livelihood,  and  acquired  a  fair  degree  of  popularity  on 
the  boards.  He  was  the  descendant  of  an  old  Scotch 
family,  and  on  the  female  side  was  the  representative  of 
the  Earls  of  Glencairn.  His  father  for  some  time  repre 
sented  Roxburghshire  in  Parliament  and  was  an  intimate 


344  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

friend  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  In  his  younger  and  palmy 
days  Sir  William  was  an  officer  in  a  regiment  of  dra 
goons,  and  held  the  appointment  of  an  aide  de  camp  to 
the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland.  In  1845  ne  found  him 
self  so  financially  embarrassed  that  he  had  to  resign 
from  the  army  and  adopt  the  stage  as  a  profession.  His 
course  was  deeply  deplored,  naturally,  by  his  noble 
friends,  but  the  public  admired  his  independence  in  earn 
ing  his  own  living  rather  than  settling  down  as  a  paltry 
pensioner  on  whatever  his  relatives  might  allow  him.  In 
1857  he  married  an  actress,  and  together  they  made  sev 
eral  successful  tours  through  Britain.  Sir  William  re 
mained  on  the  stage  until  his  death,  in  1862,  and  retained 
his  popularity  to  the  end.  His  widow,  Lady  Don,  visited 
America  in  1867,  and  was  very  successful  in  comedy  and 
burlesque  parts. 

Robert  Campbell  Maywood  may  be  regarded  as  a  good 
representative  of  the  Scots  (and  there  have  been  many  of 
them)  who  have  held  the  reins  of  theatrical  management 
in  this  country.  He  was  born  at  Greenock,  it  is  said,  in 
1786,  and  in  1819  appeared  at  the  New  York  Park  The 
atre.  In  1832  he  became  manager  of  the  Walnut  Street 
Theatre,  Philadelphia,  and  he  continued  to  manage  the 
atres  in  that  city  until  1840,  when  he  took  a  grand  fare 
well  benefit  and  retired  from  the  stage.  He  died  at  Troy, 
N.  Y.,  in  1856,  fronir  paralysis.  It  used  to  be  said  that 
whenever  he  was  short  of  an  attraction  he  invariably  put 
"  Cramond  Brig  "  on  the  stage,  and  as  invariably  made  a 
success  of  it. 

The  most  noted,  however,  of  the  Scotch  managers  in 
America  was  Col.  John  A.  McCaull,  who,  after  a  life  of 
varied  successes  and  misfortunes,  died  at  Greensboro', 
Ala.,  in  1894,  and  was  buried  in  Baltimore,  Mel.  He  was 
born  at  Glasgow  in  1830,  and  was,  when  a  child,  taken 
by  his  parents  to  Virginia.  When  the  civil  war  broke 
out  he  joined  the  forces  of  his  native  State,  and  served 
under  General  Mahone  in  the  Confederate  Army.  When 
it  was  over  he  was  for  a  term  in  the  Virginia  Legislature. 
But  it  was  in  connection  with  the  stage  that  he  became 
known  to  fame. 


PUBLIC     ENTERTAINERS.  345 

As  an  operatic  manager  he  introduced  more  stars  than 
any  other  man  in  America,  but  his  fortunes  declined  in 
his  closing  years,  and  on  Feb.  n,  1892,  a  monster  benefit 
was  given  for  him  in  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House.  It 
netted  $8,000. 

Among  the  Scottish  actresses  who  won  distinction  on 
the  American  boards,  besides  those  already  named,  the 
most  famous  in  many  respects  was  Mrs.  Joseph  Wood, 
who  made  her  transatlantic  debut  in  1833  in  the  Park 
Theatre,  New  York,  in  the  operetta  of  "  Cinderella." 
She  was  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1802,  and  received  her 
musical  training  under  the  patronage  of  the  Duchess  of 
Buccleuch.  Under  her  maiden  name,  Susannah  Paton, 
she  made  her  first  bow  to  the  public  at  concerts  in  her 
native  city,  and  quickly  became  popular,  her  sweet  voice 
and  winsome  appearance  securing  for  her  hosts  of  ad 
mirers.  In  her  case,  critics  and  public  were  unanimous  in 
their  praise.  In  1820  she  esayed  the  highest  rank  of  her 
profession  by  appearing  at  the  Haymarket,  London,  as 
Susannah  in  "  The  Marriage  of  Figaro."  Her  success  in 
the  British  metropolis  was  also  complete,  and  for  three 
or  four  years  her  life  was  full  of  happiness.  She  was 
courted  by  Lord  William  Pitt  Lennox,  a  younger  son  of 
the  Duke  of  Richmond,  and  was  married  to  him  in  1824. 
Lord  William,  soon  after  their  marriage,  began  treating 
her  cruelly,  and  after  a  while  she  found  it  necessary  to 
separate  from  him.  Their  domestic  troubles  created  a 
great  sensation  at  the  time,  but  amidst  all  the  talk  the 
young  actress  retained  the  sympathy  of  the  public,  and 
every  one  was  glad  when  she  obtained  a  decree  of  di 
vorce  from  the  titled  brute,  and  resumed  her  place  on  the 
stage.  In  1828  she  married  Joseph  Wood,  a  popular 
actor  and  operatic  singer,  and  both  maintained  for  many 
years  a  front  rank  on  the  British  stage.  Mrs.  Wood's 
American  experiences  were  of  the  most  pleasing  descrip 
tion,  and  she  was  magnificently  received  wherever  she 
appeared,  which  was  in  all  the  large  cities  of  the  conti 
nent.  She  died  at  Wakefield,  England,  in  1864. 

Few  lives  have  been  more  full  of  sunshine  and  shadow 
than  that  of  Agnes  Robertson,  wife  of  Dion  Boucicault, 


346  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

the  actor  and  playwright.  Born  at  Edinburgh  in  1833, 
she  became  in  early  life  famous  as  an  actress  in  Scotland, 
and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful  women  in 
the  country.  Her  marriage  to  Boucicault,  in  1853, 
brought  her  more  prominently  than  ever  before  the  pub 
lic,  and  the  same  year  she  made  her  American  debut  at 
Montreal.  In  North  America  she  was  a  prime  favorite 
wherever  she  appeared,  and,  whether  in  Scotch  or  Irish 
drama  or  in  society  plays,  she  proved  herself  to  be  a  fin 
ished  and  accomplished  actress.  The  story  of  her  later 
domestic  troubles  and  her  retirement  from  the  stage  are 
painfully  familiar  to  people  interested  in  theatrical  mat 
ters,  but  amidst  all  the  recriminations  and  lawsuits,  and 
variety  of  stories  which  were  circulated  at  the  time,  she 
never  lost  the  respect  of  the  public. 

Among  musicians  and  composers  the  Scot  in  America 
has  also  made  his  mark,  and  as  a  producer  and  inter 
preter  of  high-class  music  his  efforts  have  made  him  con 
spicuous.  His  quality  as  a  producer  is  fairly  shown  in 
the  career  of  William  Richardson  Dempster.  This  ge 
nius  of  song  was  born  at  Keith  in  1809,  and  was  appren 
ticed  to  a  quillmaker  in  Aberdeen.  He  was  from  his 
boyhood  devoted  to  music,  and  applied  all  of  his  spare 
time  to  its  study.  In  early  life  he  crossed  the  Atlantic 
and  was  naturalized  as  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  de 
voting  himself  to  teaching  music  and  to  public  singing, 
for  his  voice  and  ear  were  equally  gifted.  He  gradually 
became  known  as  a  composer,  but  his  efforts  in  that  di 
rection  were  not  generally  recognized  until  he  published 
his  setting  for  Tennyson's  "  May  Queen,"  which  at  once 
became  very  popular  wherever  Tennyson's  poem  was 
known.  Subsequently  he  composed  music  for  many  of 
the  songs  scattered  through  the  works  of  the  great  Poet 
Laureate,  and  his  latter  years  were  spent  pleasantly  and 
at  equal  intervals  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  In  pri 
vate  life  Mr.  Dempster  was  much  respected  as  a  rigid 
moralist,  a  good  man  in  all  that  men  hold  honorable,  and 
a  conscientious  citizen,  and  his  death,  at  London,  in 
1871,  was  regretted  by  hosts  of  friends  in  the  United 
States,  as  well  as  in  the  motherland. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

MEN     OF     LETTERS. 

IN  the  gallery  of  Scottish- American  men  of  letters  no 
name  stands  higher,  no  personality  was  more  impressive, 
no  life  was  more  useful,  than  that  of  James  McCosh,  the 
gifted  President  of  Princeton  College,  N.  J.  He  settled 
in  America  in  the  fullness  of  his  powers,  and  from  the 
day  of  his  arrival  gave  himself  up  wholly  to  it.  He  not 
only  strove  to  place  Princeton  among  the  world's  great 
seats  of  learning,  but  he  gave  to  America  a  system  of 
philosophy,  based  upon  the  old  common-sense  school  of 
Scotland,  which,  if  followed  out  and  studied  with  the 
closeness  it  deserves,  will  give  a  new  trend  to  American 
thought  and  scholarship,  and  to  American  metaphysical 
study  an  individuality  of  its  own.  His  administration  of 
Princeton  was  a  model  one.  During  his  tenure  of  office 
he  reorganized  the  whole  routine  at  the  college,  extended 
its  curriculum,  rebuilt  most  of  its  halls,  and  when  he  laid 
down  the  Presidency  it  was  second  in  point  of  equip 
ment,  number  of  students,  standing  of  Faculty,  and  moral 
tone  to  no  university  establishment  in  America.  Consid 
ered  simply  as  a  man  of  letters,  Dr.  McCosh  by  his  writ 
ings  did  much  to  advance  American  scholarship,  and  his 
two  volumes  on  "  Realistic  Philosophy  "  and  the  one  on 
"  First  and  Fundamental  Truths  "  are  p'robably  the  most 
important  contributions  yet  made  to  higher  American 
thought.  "  The  time  has  come  for  America  to  declare 
her  independence  in  philosophy  "  formed  part  of  one  of 
the  opening  sentences  of  the  former  work,  and  the 
foundation  of  such  a  system  was  the  purpose  of  his  later 
writings — the  work  of  all  his  closing  years.  But,  full  of 
American  fervor  as  he  was,  he  never  lost  his  devotion  to 
347 


348  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

his  native  land,  and  what  Scot  abroad  ever  sent  back  to 
the  country  of  his  birth  a  grander  memorial  of  his  love 
than  did  Dr.  McCosh  when  he  published  his  invaluable 
history  of  lt  Scottish  Philosophy  "?  As  he  well  said  in  its 
preface:  "This  work  has  been  with  me  a  labor  of  love. 
The  gathering  of  materials  for  it  and  the  writing  of  it,  as 
carrying-  me  into  what  I  feel  to  be  interesting  scenes, 
have  afforded  me  great  pleasure,  which  is  the  only  re 
ward  I  am  likely  to  get.  I  publish  it  as  the  last,  and  to 
me  the  only  remaining,  means  of  testifying  my  regard 
for  my  country — loved  all  the  more  because  I  am  now 
far  from  it — and  my  country's  philosophy,  which  has 
been  the  means  of  stimulating  thought  in  so  many  of 
Scotland's  sons."  To  understand  Dr.  McCosh's  life 
work,  too,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  he  was  a  zealous 
and  devoted  minister  of  the  Gospel.  That  fact  he  him 
self  not  only  never  forgot,  but  he  placed  its  duties  above 
all  others.  In  the  preface  to  his  "  Gospel  Sermons,"  pub 
lished  in  1888,  he  sufficiently  enunciated  this  when  he 
said:  "  Hitherto  my  published  works  have  been  chiefly 
philosophical.  But,  all  along,  while  I  was  lecturing  and 
writing  on  philosophy,  I  was  also  preaching.  I  am 
anxious  that  the  public  should  know  that,  much  as  I 
value  philosophy,  I  place  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
above  it." 

Dr.  McCosh  was  born  in  1811  at  Garskeoch,  Ayrshire, 
and  was  the  son  of  a  farmer.  After  studying  for  the 
ministry  at  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh,  he  was  licensed  to 
preach  in  1834,  and  soon  after  became  minister  of  the 
Abbey  Church,  Arbroath.  Three  years  later  he  became 
minister  of  Brechin,  and  there  he  labored  until  the  Dis 
ruption,  when  he  formed  one  of  the  noble  band  who 
"  came  out  "  with  Chalmers,  Cunningham,  Candlish,  and 
Guthrie.  For  a  time  he  was  an  itinerant  preacher,  going 
hither  and  thither  throughout  Angus  and  Mearns,  gath 
ering  the  people  into  congregations  and  explaining  the 
position  of  the  new  Free  Church.  Finally  he  settled 
down  as  minister  of  the  East  Free  Church,  Brechin,  and 
gave  himself  up  to  study.  It  was  there  he  commenced 
his  lifelong  inquiry  into  philosophical  matters.  One  of 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  349 

the  first  fruits  of  that  study  was  a  volume  on  "  The 
Method  of  Divine  Government,  Physical  and  Moral," 
and  its  publication  led  to  his  receiving  the  appointment 
of  Professor  of  Logic  and  Metaphysics  in  Queen's  Col 
lege,  Belfast.  This  appointment  met  with  a  good  deal  o( 
opposition  in  Ireland. 

The  new  professor  speedily  showed,  however,  that  he 
\vas  an  acquisition  to  Ireland,  although  his  earnest  ad 
vocacy  of  a  system  of  education  in  that  country  on  na 
tional  principles  met  with  the  most  bitter  opposition  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  and  laity.  Indeed,  his  views 
and  those  of  Mr.  Gladstone  on  this  question  were  dia 
metrically  opposed  to  each  other,  but  he  cordially  in 
dorsed,  as  might  be  expected,  that  statesman's  movement 
for  the  disestablishment  of  the  English  Church  in  Ire 
land.  His  studies  in  metaphysics  were  diligently  prose 
cuted  in  Ireland,  and  the  outcome  was  several  works 
which  advanced  his  position  in  the  world  of  letters  and 
thought — notably  his  volume  on  "  Intuitions  of  the 
Mind."  In  1866  Dr.  McCosh  paid  a  visit  to  America, 
mainly  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  educational  equip 
ment  of  the  country.  Two  years  later  he  was  offered  the 
position  of  President  of  Princeton,  and  accepted  it  after 
considerable  hesitation.  From  that  time  until  the  weight 
of  years,  in  1888,  impelled  him  to  resign  the  Presidency, 
his  whole  life  was  devoted  to  Princeton,  and  the  devo 
tion  had  magnificent  results.  His  students  loved  him, 
the  friends  of  Princeton  had  confidence  in  him,  and  he 
constantly  was  adding  new  names  to  the  long  list  of  the 
benefactors  of  the  institution.  But,  wrapped  up  as  he 
was  in  Princeton,  Dr.  McCosh  took  a  keen  interest  in 
passing  events  and  in  the  literary  movements  of  his  time. 
He  had  a  profound  contempt  for  the  theory  of  evolution, 
and  discussed  it  in  print  with  its  great  apostle,  Tyndall, 
and  whatever  looked  like  an  approach  to  materialism 
found  in  him  an  inveterate  foe.  He  had  no  patience  with 
anything  that  paltered  with  the  great  truths  of  life,  and 
if  he  hated  an  infidel  he  had  nothing  but  contempt  for  an 
agnostic,  or  even  for  what  might  be  called  a  "  trimmer." 
Religion  must  either  be  wholly  true  or  wholly  false. 


350  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

There  was  no  middle  way,  no  room  for  real  argument 
except  on  the  one  side  or  the  other.  But  he  was  no  be 
liever  in  the  theory  that  religion  can  take  care  of  itself. 
He  regarded  it  as  the  duty  of  all  men  who  professed  re 
ligion  to  advance  it  and  strengthen  it  at  every  point. 
Hence  the  interest  he  took  in  the  movement  for  the  union 
of  the  various  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  Church — a 
union  he  advocated  until  his  death,  in  1894. 

National  predilection  might  tempt  us  to  regard  Dr.  Mc- 
Cosh's  greatest  work  as  his  volume  on  "  Scottish  Philos 
ophy,"  but  undoubtedly  the  book  which  has  had  and  will 
continue  to  have  the  greatest  influence  upon  the  thought 
of  this  country  is  that  in  which  he  unfolded  his  scheme  of 
realistic  philosophy — the  American  school,  as  he  liked 
to  call  it.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  that  work  has  al 
ready  exerted  a  very  considerable  influence  in  America, 
but  we  believe  its  influence  is  only  in  its  primary  stages, 
and  that  sooner  or  later  the  system  laid  down  by  the 
grand  old  man  of  Princeton  will  be  fully  adopted  as 
America's  own — modified,  of  course,  by  the  inevitable 
new  lights  which  time  and  circumstance  will  bring  to 
bear  upon  it.  But  time  and  circumstance  will  not  change 
the  groundwork,  and  in  Dr.  McCosh's  foundation  we  see 
a  system  founded  on  a  rock — the  rock  of  truth,  for,  after 
all,  that  is  the  keynote  of  the  system  he  proposed.  By  it 
he  hoped  to  make  American  philosophy  healthy — differ 
ent  altogether  from  the  vague,  unsatisfactory  specula 
tion,  the  sickly  sentimentalism,  and  the  cowardly  agnos 
ticism  of  so  many  of  the  recognized  European  schools. 
His  system  was  not  altogether  untried,  for  it  is  really,  as 
we  have  already  said,  a  development  of  the  old  Scotch 
common-sense  school,  and  it  squared  in  every  point  with 
natural  and  revealed  religion.  To  America  the  life  of 
Dr.  McCosh  was  a  grand  one,  and  had  Scotland  con 
tributed  no  more  than  that  one  life  to  the  agencies  which 
are  building  up  and  developing  the  highest  and  holiest 
interests  of  the  United  States,  it  would  have  deserved 
the  kindliest  recognition  from  American  scholarship. 

A  very  similar  case  is  that  of  Dr.  Daniel  Wilson  of 
Toronto — Sir  Daniel,  as  he  was  called  in  the  twilight  of 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  351 

his  life.  Like  Dr.  McCosh,  he  settled  in  America  in  the 
fullness  of  his  powers,  and  after  he  had  established  his 
literary  reputation,  and  he  continued  at  work  in  his 
transatlantic  home  until  the  inevitable  summons  called 
him  to  the  majority.  Born  at  Edinburgh  in  1816,  a 
nephew  of  "  Christopher  North/'  he  early  showed  a 
predilection  for  literary  work.  His  education  was  re 
ceived  mainly  at  the  historic  High  School  of  his  native 
town — the  school  of  Drummond  of  Hawthornden,  Rob 
ert  Ferguson,  Law  of  Lauriston,  Boswell,  the  biog 
rapher;  Henry  Mackenzie,  the  "  Man  of  Feeling";  Lord 
Brougham,  and  a  hundred  other  notables — and  at  the 
university  in  that  city.  After  graduating,  he  spent  some 
years  in  London,  mainly  engaged  in  literary  pursuits,  and 
then  returned  to  Scotland,  where  he  began  that  thorough 
study  into  the  archaeology  and  antiquities  of  the  country 
which  was  destined  ultimately  to  give  him  a  high  place 
among  her  historical  writers.  He  became  Secretary  to 
the  Royal  Antiquarian  Society  of  Scotland  and  contrib 
uted  many  valuable  papers  to  its  "  Transactions."  His 
chief  study  at  that  time  was  the  romantic  city  in  which  he 
was  born  and  in  which  he  resided,  and  the  result  of  his 
studies — the  "  Memorials  of  Edinburgh  in  the  Olden 
Time,"  published  in  1847 — established  his  reputation  as 
a  writer  and  archaeologist.  His  greatest  contribution  to 
historical  literature,  however,  was  his  "  Prehistoric  An 
nals  of  Scotland,"  a  work  which  not  only  directed  in 
quiry  on  a  rational  basis  into  a  subject  which  had  pre 
viously  been  treated  as  a  romance  or  a  series  of  fables, 
but  continues  to  be  a  standard  authority,  notwithstand 
ing  the  researches  which  have  since  been  made  into  the 
subject.  In  1853,  through  the  influence  of  the  Earl  of 
Elgin,  Wilson  accepted  an  invitation  to  become  Professor 
of  English  Literature  and  History  in  the  University  of 
Toronto,  and  thereafter  made  his  home  in  Canada.  From 
that  "  Queen  City  "  he  issued,  in  1862,  his  magnificent 
volumes  on  "  Prehistoric  Man :  Researches  into  the  Ori 
gin  of  Civilization  in  the  Old  World  and  the  New,"  thus 
grouping  his  American  as  well  as  his  European  studies  of 
a  theme  that  was  to  him  of  the  most  fascinating  descrip- 


352  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

tion.  We  have  not  space,  however,  to  mention  all  of  the 
literary  work  which  this  diligent  student  performed  after 
his  lines  were  cast  in  Canada.  If  gathered  together  his 
contributions  to  the  Journal  of  the  Canadian  Institute 
and  to  periodicals  of  various  descriptions  would  fill  a 
goodly  array  of  volumes.  All  his  work  was  conscien 
tiously  done;  every  line  he  wrote  bore  the  hall  marks  of 
the  scholar.  Dr.  Wilson  was  a  poet,  too,  and  published 
a  small  volume  of  his  verses  under  the  title  of  "  Spring- 
Flowers  "  in  18/5,  but  no  one  can  read  his  prose  works 
without  feeling  in  them  even  a  deeper  poetical  sentiment 
and  insight  than  in  the  volume  in  which  he  uttered  his 
thoughts  in  verse.  His  was  a  beautiful  old  age.  Ele 
vated  to  the  Presidency  of  his  college,  honored  by  his 
sovereign  with  knighthood,  and  enjoying  the  respectful 
admiration  of  thousands  of  friends  in  both  hemispheres, 
he  continued  in  harness  to  the  end,  doing  good  by  word, 
thought,  and  deed  until  the  night  came  that  ushered  him 
into  the  sunlight. 

The  first  literature  that  is  issued  in  connection  with  a 
hew  country  is  generally  topographical  and  descriptive, 
and  in  respect  to  the  New  World  the  ubiquitous  Scot  is 
represented  among  those  who  wrote  of  the  American 
Colonies  while  even  most  of  the  seaboard  was  in  a  state 
of  nature.  This  advance  guard  of  a  long  line  of  litter 
ateurs  of  all  ranks  had  an  early  representative  in  John 
Lawson,  a  native  of  Aberdeen.  He  was  born  in  that 
city  about  1658,  and  in  1690  was  appointed  Surveyor 
General  of  North  Carolina.  He  appears  to  have  begun 
his  work  in  America  a  year  later,  and  to  have  applied 
himself  to  its  duties  with  all  the  determination  and  en 
ergy  so  characteristic  of  his  race.  The  best  evidence  of 
this  extant  is  his  volume,  published  at  London  in  1700, 
entitled  "  A  New  Voyage  to  Carolina,  Containing  the 
Exact  Description  and  Natural  History  of  that  Country ; 
Together  with  the  Present  State  Thereof;  and  a  Journal 
of  a  Thousand  Miles  Traveled  Through  Several  Nations 
of  Indians,  Giving  a  Particular  Account  of  Their  Cus 
toms,  Manners,  &c."  This  work  proved  so  popular,  was 
recognized  as  so  perfect  an  authority  on  its  subject  that 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  353 

it  was  reprinted  in  1709,  1714,  and  in  1718,  and  it  had  the 
honor  of  being  reproduced,  at  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  as  recently 
as  1860.  In  1712,  in  the  course  of  one  of  his  surveying 
trips,  Lawson  was  made  prisoner  by  Tuscarora  Indians 
and  was  put  to  death  in  a  manner  that  brought  into  op 
eration  all  the  fiendish  cruelty  for  which  that  people  were 
distinguished. 

A  better-remembered  name  is  that  of  George  Chalm 
ers,  one  of  the  most  prominent  literary  antiquarians  of 
Scotland.  This  man,  whose  wonderful  "  Caledonia  "  re 
mains  a  storehouse  for  writers  on  Scottish  historical 
matters,  was  born  at  Fochabers  in  1742,  and  bred  to  the 
legal  profession.  In  1763  he  sailed  for  America  with  a 
relative  who  was  anxious  to  recover  a  large  tract  of  land 
in  Maryland,  which  had  been  in  the  possession  of  an 
earlier  member  of  the  family.  Making  his  headquarters 
in  Baltimore,  Chalmers  studied  the  legal  practice  of  that 
city,  and  finally  determined  to  settle  there  and  carry  on 
his  profession.  There  he  remained,  until  the  troubles  of 
the  Revolution  broke  out,  and  when  he  saw  that  separa 
tion  from  the  mother  country  was  inevitable,  or  that  mili 
tary  rule  was  to  be  necessary  to  keep  the  country  loyal, 
he  determined  to  leave  it.  Settling  up  his  affairs  as  best 
he  could,  he  crossed  over  to  London  and  began  his  ca 
reer  as  a  man  of  letters.  It  is  singular  that  Chalmers's 
American  experiences  proved  unproductive  of  literary 
result.  He  published  in  1782  the  first  volume  of  "  An  In 
troduction  to  the  History  of  the  Revolt  of  the  Colonies," 
but  the  volume  was  quickly  suppressed  at  his  instance, 
and  no  more  appeared  in  print.  A  volume  of  "  Opinions 
on  Interesting  Subjects  of  Public  Laws  and  Commercial 
Policy,  Arising  from  American  Independence,"  issued  in 
1784,  and  a  few  tracts,  complete  his  literary  connection 
with  the  United  States.  Scotland,  however,  was  possibly 
the  gainer  by  his  devotion  to  themes  and  studies  peculiar  - 
ly  her  own,  and  his  editions  of  her  ancient  poets,  hi-; 
"  Caledonia,"  his  "  Life  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,"  and 
many  other  works  of  like  importance  give  him  a  high 
place  among  the  literary  students  of  the  couniry. 

In  the  case  of  James,  Thomas  Callender  we  have  the 


354  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

first  instance  of  a  Scot  whose  entire  literary  life,  almost, 
was  given  up  to  the  United  States,  and  was  developed  by 
the  influences  at  work  in  the  country.  He  was  also  one 
of  the  pioneers,  if  not  the  pioneer,  of  that  style  of  Ameri 
can  journalism  which  uses  declamation  and  denunciation 
instead  of  argument,  which  is  distinguished  by  the  bitter 
ness  it  displays  toward  opponents,  and  seems  never  hap 
pier  than  when  engaged  in  sneering  at  and  belittling,  if 
not  vilifying,  whatever  does  not  square  with  the  writer's 
notions  or  interests,  in  Church  or  State,  in  religion,  man 
ners,  or  morals.  Callender  was  born  at  Stirling  in  1758. 
Of  his  early  life  little  is  known  until,  in  1792,  he  published 
at  Edinburgh  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  The  Political  Prog 
ress  of  Britain."  It  was  a  time  when  the  authorities, 
aroused  by  the  success  of  the  French  Revolution  and 
the  feeling  of  dissatisfaction  with  political  conditions 
which  generally  prevailed,  were  keenly  bent  on  suppress 
ing  anything  that  looked  like  sedition,  and  Callender's 
work  was  judged  to  fall  under  that  category,  and  was 
seized.  A  warrant  was  issued  for  his  arrest,  but  he 
evaded  it  by  escaping  to  this  country. 

Callender  reached  America  in  1793,  and  settled  in  Phil 
adelphia.  There  he  published  the  "  Political  Register  " 
and  the  "  American  Register,"  but  neither  appear  to  have 
added  much  to  his  worldly  fortune.  Removing  to  Rich 
mond,  Va.,  he  established  the  "  Richmond  Recorder," 
which  became  somewhat  of  a  power  in  politics.  Callen 
der  was  bitterly  outspoken  in  his  opposition  to  the  Ad 
ministrations  of  Washington  and  Adams.  His  beau 
ideal  of  a  statesman  for  a  long  time  was  Thomas  Jeffer 
son,  but  toward  the  end  he  opposed  that  patriot's  policy 
as  vehemently  as  he  did  those  of  the  early  Presidents. 
A  man  engaged  in  newspaper  work  has  little  time  for 
anything  else  than  to  fulfill  its  demands,  but  Callender 
managed  to  publish  several  volumes — "  Sketches  of 
American  History  "  being  the  most  noteworthy — all  of 
which  show  him  to  have  been  a  writer  at  once  forcible 
and  graceful  and  possessed  of  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
and  a  keen  insight  into  the  passing  affairs  of  his  time. 
His  character,  however,  was  not  a  lovable  one.  His 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  355 

temper  was  soured — perhaps  by  his  outlawry  in  early 
life — and  his  work  in  this  country  seems  really  to  have 
been  of  little  passing,  and  certainly  of  no  permanent, 
value.  He  met  his  death,  by  drowning,  in  the  James 
River,  near  Richmond,  in  1813. 

A  much  more  amiable  career,  and  one  still  popularly 
recalled  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  is  that  of  Alexan 
der  Wilson,  "  the  Paisley  poet  and  American  ornitholo 
gist,"  as  he  has  been  described.  He  was  born  in  Paisley 
in  1766,  educated  at  the  grammar  school  there,  and  in 
due  time  was  apprenticed  to  a  weaver — the  trade  of  his 
father.  He  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  loom,  and  after  his 
apprenticeship  was  over  he  sighed  for  some  other  em 
ployment,  which  would  give  him  an  opportunity  to  study 
nature  in  all  her  moods.  He  early  began  to  dabble  in 
literature,  and,  at  all  events,,  to  have  aspirations  for  lit 
erary  work,  and  one  of  his  many  biographers,  Dr.  Gro- 
sart,  seems  to  regard  it  as  probable  that  in  1786  he  made 
a  pilgrimage  to  Kilmarnock  to  make  the  acquaintance  of 
Robert  Burns,  and  that  he  succeeded  in  his  mission.  Af 
ter  several  years  spent  as  a  journeyman  weaver  in  Pais 
ley,  Queensferry,  and  other  places,  during  which  time  his 
muse  was  busy,  he  determined  to  see  his  country  thor 
oughly  and  at  the  same  time  support  himself  by  "  carry 
ing  a  pack  " — that  is,  by  becoming  a  peddler.  In  this 
way  he  not  only  traveled  into  sections  of  his  native  land 
which  otherwise  he  might  never  have  seen,  but  his  poet 
ical  qualities  wonderfully  developed,  and  such  composi 
tions  as  "  The  Loss  of  the  Pack  "  are  still  recited  in  Scot 
land.  His  delightful  prose  style  also  formed  itself  about 
this  time,  and  the  journals  of  his  travels  and  his  letters 
are  to  this  day  delightful  reading.  While  journeying  he 
secured  subscribers  for  a  volume  of  his  poems,  which 
ultimately  appeared  in  1790  and  gave  him  a  more  than 
local  standing  as  a  poet.  The  volume  is,  however,  very 
unequal  in  its  contents,  and  shows  that  the  author  lacked 
the  services  of  a  critical  adviser  when  preparing  or  se 
lecting  its  contents  for  the  press.  The  most  popular  of 
all  his  poems,  "  Watty  and  Meg,"  appeared  in  1792  as  a 
penny  chapbook,  without  any  author's  name,  and  was  at 


356  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

once  attributed  to  Burns — the  highest  compliment  which 
it  was  possible  for  the  people  of  Scotland  to  pay  it. 

In  1793,  like  nearly  every  young  man  then  in  Paisley, 
Wilson  fell  under  the  ban  of  being  suspected  of  nursing 
seditious  sentiments,  and,  as  he  avowed  the  authorship  of 
several  poems  thus  libeled,  he  was  sent  to  jail.  After 
his  release  he  made  up  his  mind  to  try  his  fortunes  in  the 
young"  republic  over  the  sea,  although  the  very  idea  of 
parting  with  Scotland  cost  him  a  severe  pang,  for  Amer 
ica  was  much  further  away  from  Scotland  in  those  days 
than  now. 

When  Wilson  landed  in  the  New  World  he  was  ready 
to  accept  a  job  at  anything  that  presented  itself,  and  in 
time  he  was  a  helper  in  a  copperplate  printing  establish 
ment,  a  weaver,  a  peddler,  and  a  schoolmaster.  In  the 
last-named  employment  he  won  considerable  success, 
and  his  appointment  as  teacher  in  an  institution  at  Kin- 
gess,  about  four  miles  from  Philadelphia,  seemed  to 
bring  him  the  opportunity  for  putting  into  practice  a 
determination  he  had  formed  during  his  wanderings  over 
the  country,  that  of  making  a  descriptive  and  pictorial 
work  about  the  birds  of  America. 

Wilson's  fame  in  America  rests  on  his  "  Ornithology," 
the  first  volume  of  which  was  issued  in  1808.  In  his  let 
ters  and  diaries  he  has  given  us  wonderfully  graphic  pict 
ures  of  his  adventures  in  search  of  material  for  this 
work,  of  the  hardships  he  had  to  endure,  of  his  wander 
ings  through  unknown  regions  and  of  his  many  hair 
breadth  escapes  on  land  and  water.  As  he  journeyed 
he  canvassed  for  subscribers  for  the  work,  and  he  has 
told  us  of  his  successes  as  well  as  his  rebuffs  in  this  con 
nection  with  a  species  of  humor  that  is  thoroughly  na 
tional  in  its  alternate  modesty  and  grimness.  It  was  a 
great  work  to  be  undertaken  singlehanded  by  a  man 
whose  sole  capital,  besides  his  fitness,  was  his  enthusiasm, 
but  he  kept  steadily  to  his  task,  overriding  all  sorts  of 
obstacles,  and  in  fairly  rapid  succession  saw  seven  of  its 
goodly  volumes  on  his  table  and  in  the  hands  of  his 
subscribers.  The  eighth  volume  announced  his  death, 
and  the  sad  event  was  directly  brought  about  through 


MEN     OP     LETTERS.    •  357 

his  eagerness  to  perfect  the  work.  The  story  is  then  told : 
u  While  he  (Wilson)  was  sitting  in  the  house  of  one  of 
his  acquaintances  enjoying  the  pleasures  of  conversa 
tion,  he  chanced  to  see  a  bird  of  a  rare  species,  for  one  of 
which  he  had  long  been  in  search.  With  his  usual  enthu 
siasm  he  ran  out,  followed  it,  swam  across  a  river  over 
which  it  had  flown,  fired  at,  killed,  and  obtained  the 
object  of  his  eager  pursuit,  but  caught  a  cold,  which 
ended  in  his  death."  The  end  came  on  Aug.  23,  1813, 
and  the  poet-ornithologist  was  buried  in  the  little  God's- 
acre  surrounding  the  old  Swedish  Church,  Philadelphia, 
where  the  birds  still  sing  over  his  grave.  The  spot  is 
marked  by  a  flat  stone  appropriately  inscribed,  and  is 
the  foremost  Scottish  shrine  in  the  "  City  of  Brotherly 
Love."  Wilson's  memory  is  still  cherished  in  the  land 
of  his  birth  and  the  land  of  his  adoption.  Not  far  from 
the  ancient  Abbey  of  Paisley  a  splendid  bronze  statue 
of  him  has  been  erected,  showing  him,  not  as  a  poet, 
but  as  a  wanderer  in  an  American  forest  in  search  of 
illustrations  for  his  great  work,  and  that  work  has  given 
him  a  place  in  American  literature  which  is  not  only 
unique  but  has  won  for  him  the  title  pre-eminently  of 
"  The  American  Ornithologist." 

In  many  respects  the  greatest  name  in  Scottish-Amer 
ican  literature  is  that  of  Washington  Irving,  who  was 
born  in  New  York  City  in  1783.  His  father  was  a  na 
tive  of  Orkney,  and  traced  descent  back  to  the  Irvines 
of  Drum.  He  settled  in  New  York  in  1763,  and  became 
a  successful  merchant,  but  had  to  leave  the  city  during" 
the  Revolutionary  struggle,  having  adopted  the  Colonial 
cause.  After  a  couple  of  years,  however,  he  returned,  and 
quickly  made  up  his  losses.  He  was  a  sturdy  Presbyte 
rian,  a  good  citizen,  and  a  stanch  admirer  of  the  first 
President  of  the  country,  and  so  named  his  youngest 
son  in  his  honor. 

Washington  Irving  was  carefully  educated,  although 
he  never  attended  college,  and  in  due  time  entered  a 
law  office.  He  was  attentive  to  his  law  studies,  but  liter 
ature  had  a  greater  attraction  for  him,  and  the  business  of 
his  life  was  sadly  interrupted — fortunately  for  literature — 


358  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

by  delicate  health.  This  led  to  frequent  country  jour 
neys,  in  the  course  of  which  he  thoroughly  explored  the 
Hudson  River,  and  in  1800  was  the  cause  of  his  first 
trip  across  the  Atlantic.  After  rambling  over  the  Con 
tinent  for  two  years,  he  returned  to  New  York,  was  ad 
mitted  to  the  bar  in  1806,  but  did  not  seem  to  get  much 
practice.  In  fact,  with  the  exception  of  a  short  time  when 
he  managed  the  business  which  his  father  had  bequeathed 
to  the  family  during  the  illness  of  his  brother  Peter,  his 
life  was  that  of  a  man  of  letters.  Even  the  office  of  Secre 
tary  of  the  American  Legation  in  London,  which  he  filled 
from  1829  to  1832,  and  the  post  of  Minister  to  Spain, 
which  he  occupied  from  1842  to  1846,  were  really  sub 
servient  to  his  many  literary  studies.  His  career  was  an 
uneventful,  and,  on  the  whole,  a  happy  one.  He  never 
married,  and  the  story  of  the  declining  years  of  his  life 
from  1846  until  he  was  laid  at  rest  in  Sleepy  Hollow,  in 
the  closing  days  of  1859,  forms  one  of  the  pleasantest 
records  of  the  sunset  of  a  literary  life  of  which  we  have 
knowledge.  His  fame  has  steadily  increased  year  after 
year  since  then;  and  Sunnyside,  his  home,  is  now  one  of 
the  Meccas  of  lovers  of  American  literature. 

Irving's  first  literary  work — a  series  of  articles  contrib 
uted,  in  his  nineteenth  year,  to  the  "  Morning  Chronicle," 
a  newspaper  published  by  his  brother,  Peter  Irving — 
showed  cleverness  and  versatility,  and  as  much  may  be 
said  for  his  "  Salmagundi "  papers.  They  were  what 
might  be  called  apprentice-work,  the  work  which  every 
beginner  in  literature  must  struggle  with  before  essaying 
higher  flights,  or  adding  anything  to  the  real  literary 
wealth  of  his  country  or  the  world.  Irving's  first  real 
contribution  to  literature  was  his  "  History  of  New  York 
by  Diedrich  Knickerbocker,"  which  was  published  in 
1809.  Taking  the  outlines  of  the  early  and  vague  history 
of  the  city  as  a  foundation,  he  filled  these  outlines  up  with 
sketches  of  real  men  and  women,  and  infused  into  every 
page  such  playful  humor,  and,  here  and  there,  such  de 
lightful  satire;  and,  withal,  such  an  appearance  of  a 
determination  to  present  the  exact  truth  in  every  line, 
that  people  at  first  did  not  know  what  to  make  of  it. 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  359 

The  descendants  of  the  old  Knickerbocker  families  voted 
it  a  caricature  and  denounced  it  as  such;  others  accepted 
it  as  a  veritable  history,  and  a  few  sat  down  to  enjoy  its 
perusal  purely  as  a  literary  treat.  It  at  once  became 
popular,  and  has  since  become  a  classic,  and  we  have 
admitted  Wilhelmus  Kraft,  Wouter  Van  Twiller  and 
Peter  Stuyvesant — Peter  the  Headstrong — to  our  gal 
lery  of  heroes  of  romance.  But  such  is  the  power  of 
genius  that  Irving's  "  Knickerbocker,"  without  any  real 
pretensions  to  be  a  veritable  history,  has  taken  its  place 
among  historical  records  to  such  an  extent  that  no  one 
would  now  dream  of  investigating  the  early  history  of 
New  York  or  writing  about  it  without  studying  more  or 
less  Irving's  pages.  We  could  not  draw  a  pen  picture  of 
Gov.  Stuyvesant,  for  instance,  without  his  aid,  for  it  is 
Irving's  portrait  of  that  one-legged  hero  that  has  been 
accepted  as  the  true  one,  and,  in  the  public  esteem,  what 
ever  does  not  conform  to  it  cannot  be  correct  or  worthy 
of  consideration.  In  Scotland  it  is  Sir  Walter  Scott's 
"  Jeannie  Deans's  Duke  "  that  people  think  of,  not  the 
historical  character  who  figures  in  the  annals  of  Great 
Britain  as  the  second  Duke  of  Argyll. 

This  work  fully  established  Irving's  fame  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic,  and,  what  probably  delighted  him  more, 
led  to  the  writer's  receiving  a  warm  welcome  at  Abbots- 
ford,  when  afterward  on  a  visit  to  Scotland.  "The  Sketch 
Book,"  with  its  inimitable  paper  on  "  Rip  Van  Winkle," 
added  to  the  popularity  of  Irving;  but,  although  "  Brace- 
bridge  Hall "  was  received  kindly,  it  did  not  add  much 
to  the  prestige  of  its  author.  In  the  "  Life  of  Colum 
bus,"  published  in  1828,  Irving  fairly  entered  the  arena 
of  European  literature,  and  that  work  at  once  became 
recognized  as  the  standard  biography  of  the  great  dis 
coverer.  Its  diligent  research,  its  clear  array  of  facts, 
its  skillful  handling  of  details,  and  the  beauty  of  its  lite 
rary  style  were  at  once  recognized  as  the  work  of  a 
master,  and  it  has  since  remained  without  a  rival  in  pop 
ular  favor. 

His  last  work,  his  "  Life  of  George  Washington,"  was 
undoubtedly  his  greatest  and  his  best,  and  gives  us  a 


360  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

picture  of  the  great  American  hero  which,  it  is  safe  to 
say,  will  never  be  surpassed  for  truthfulness  or  power. 
He  gives  way  to  no  theories  why  Washington  did  this  or 
did  not  do  that.  He  indulges  in  no  philosophy,  and 
follows  his  hero  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave  with  a 
fullness  that  leaves  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  as 
to  what  kind  of  a  man  Washington  really  was;  and  this, 
it  seems  to  us,  is  the  very  highest  form  of  biographical 
writing.  When  the  work  was  passing  through  the  press 
Irving  began  to  feel  that  the  night  that  falls  upon  all  men 
was  quickly  drawing  its  shadows  around  him,  and  it  was 
only  a  few  months  before  the  clouds  closed  in  that  he  had 
the  happiness  of  seeing  the  completed  work  on  his  table, 
and  of  rejoicing  in  the  knowledge  that  all  united  in  say 
ing  it  was  well  done.  He  died  on  November  28,  1859, 
and  three  days  later  was  buried  in  Sleepy  Hollow,  in  the 
midst  of  a  country  that  received  from  his  pen  some  at 
least  of  the  halo  which  Scott  threw  over  his  own  beloved 
Borderland. 

Had  Washington  Irving  not  written  "  Astoria "  it  is 
probable  that  the  recognized  authority,  the  literary 
genius  of  John  Jacob  Astor's  expedition  to  Oregon 
would  have  been  Alexander  Ross,  who  from  a  pioneer 
hunter  developed  in  his  later  years  into  a  writer  of  books. 
His  "  Adventures  of  the  First  Settlers  on  the  Oregon  or 
Columbia  River,"  "  Fur  Traders  in  the  Far  West,"  and 
"  Red  River  Settlement "  are  good  books  of  their  kind, 
full  of  adventure  and  description,  written  in  an  easy,  at 
tractive — sometimes  fascinating — style,  and  eminently 
truthful  even  in  the  slightest  detail.  Ross  was  a  native 
of  Nairnshire,  and  went  to  Canada  in  1805,  when  in  his 
twenty-second  year.  For  a  time  he  taught  school  in 
Glengarry  and  elsewhere,  and  found  the  employment 
fruitful  of  usefulness  to  the  children  and  the  community, 
but  barren  of  results  to  himself.  In  1810  he  joined  the 
Astor  expedition  to  Oregon,  and  until  1825  was  a  hunter 
and  fur  trader  in  the  Astor  Company  or  that  of  Hudson 
Bay.  In  1825  he  removed  to  the  Red  River  Settlement, 
and  became  its  Sheriff  and  a  member  of  the  Council  of 
Assiniboine.  He  survived  till  his  seventy-third  year,  in 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  361 

spite  of  all  the  hardships  and  sufferings  of  his  early  life, 
and  died  at  Winnipeg,  beloved  and  honored,  in  1856. 

Pleasant  memories  yet  linger  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  George  Buist,  who  settled  in  that  city  to 
take  charge  of  an  academy  or  college — the  words  at  that 
time  appear  to  have  been  used  synonymously — and  re 
mained  there  till  his  death,  in  1808.  lie  was  born  in 
Fifeshire  in  1770,  was  educated  at  Edinburgh  University, 
and  there  called  to  the  ministry.  He  was  one  of  the 
earliest  Scotch  students  of  philology,  and  that  subject, 
ever  changing  and  progressing,  and  constantly  opening 
up  new  fields  of  thought,  remained  his  favorite  study 
throughout  his  long  and  useful  life.  He  was  one  of  the 
contributors  to  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  abridged 
Hume's  History  of  England  for  schools  and  ordinary 
readers;  and  a  volume  of  his  sermons,  published  after  he 
had  passed  away,  was  prefaced  by  a  brief  memoir  in 
which  the  example  of  his  beautiful  life  was  fittingly 
placed  before  the  reader.  The  volume  is  now  very 
scarce. 

One  of  the  most  curious  characters  in  all  American 
literary  history — and  no  literary  history  is  so  full  of  curi 
osities — was  John  Wood,  author  of  a  "  History  of  the 
Administration  of  John  Adams,"  which  James  Parton, 
the  American  biographical  writer,  has  characterized  as  a 
lot  of  lies.  This  characterization  seems,  unfortunately 
for  Wood's  memory,  to  have  been  perfectly  correct.  To 
sum  up  his  literary  work  in  the  most  general  and  gentle 
manner,  we  might  say  with  truth  that  he  was  one  of  the 
most  unreliable  and  fact-regardless  writers  who  ever 
lived  in  America.  Wood  was  born  in  Scotland  in  1775, 
and  emigrated  to  America  in  1800.  He  engaged  in  such 
literary  hack  work  as  he  could  find,  and  never  really  rose 
above  the  stage  of  such  composition.  This  was  due 
more  to  the  lack  of  literary  opportunity,  the  country  not 
then  being  far  enough  advanced  to  foster  any  of  the 
higher  arts  to  any  great  extent,  than  to  any  lack  of  abil 
ity  on  the  part  of  Wood,  for  he  seems  to  have  really  been 
a  man  of  superior  intellect.  For  several  years  he  edited 
a  sheet  called  "  The  Western  World,"  in  Kentucky.  In 


36?!  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

1817  he  took  up  his  abode  in  Washington,  and  had  the 
editorial  charge  of  the  "  Atlantic  World."  He  cultivated 
the  friendship  of  the  most  noted  politicians  of  his  time 
while  sojourning  in  the  national  capital,  but  their  friend 
ship  did  not  advance  his  interests  in  any  material  way, 
and  he  died  at  Richmond,  Ya.,  a  poor  man,  in  1822. 

We  gladly  turn  from  the  memory  of  such  a  personage 
as  Wood  to  the  honored  name  of  John  Gait,  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  annalists  of  the  Scotch  peasantry  and 
one  of  the  most  voluminous  and  instructive  writers  of 
his  time.  A  few  years  ago  he  was  named  as  second  only 
to  Scott  as  a  delineator  and  illustrator  of  Scotch  humble 
life,  and,  although  time  and  the  varying  moods  of  public 
taste  have  removed  him  from  that  high  pedestal,  he  yet 
holds  a  foremost  place  among  the  Scottish  novelists  who 
have  written  of  their  own  people.  Such  works  as  "  The 
Annals  of  the  Parish  "  and  "  The  Ayrshire  Legatees  " 
still  retain  their  popularity,  and  are  alone  sufficient  to 
keep  their  writer's  memory  green  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen.  Gait  was  born  at  Irvine,  Ayrshire,  in  1779, 
and  had  made  his  mark  in  literature  before  crossing  the 
Atlantic  in  1824.  "  He  came  to  Canada,"  writes  Mr.  H. 
J.  Morgan,  to  whose  writings  we  have  been  greatly  in 
debted  for  information  on  many  points,  "  as  Commis 
sioner  of  the  Canada  Land  Company,  an  association  in 
which  he  took  great  interest  and  used  his  best  efforts  to 
advance;  and  it  may  be  said  that  to  his  indefatigable  en 
ergy  and  ability  may  be  in  part  ascribed  the  present 
[1862]  high  position  the  company  enjoys.  Indeed,  we 
know  of  hardly  any  cue  who  did  so  much  for  it  as  Mr. 
Gait.  During  his  stay  in  Canada  he  took  a  great  interest 
in  the  upper  province  [Ontario]  and  in  colonizing  and 
settling  it;  and  the  country  is  indebted  to  him  for  some 
of  the  best  improvements,  both  on  land  and  water,  it 
possesses.  He  founded  the  town  of  Guelph,  in  the  Coun 
ty  of  Wellington,  and  the  town  of  Gait  is  named  after 
him.  But  differences  having  arisen  between  him  and  the 
company,  he  resigned  in  1829  and  returned  to  Britain 
that  same  year,  where  shortly  afterward  he  was  obliged 
to  take  advantage  of  the  Insolvent  Debtors'  act.  He  re- 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  363 

turned  to  his  literary  labors  with  renewed  zest  and  en 
ergy,  and  during  the  remainder  of  his  life  he  produced  a 
number  of  works,  principally  novels  and  miscellanies, 
some  of  which  range  high  in  the  estimation  of  literary 
men  and  belong  to  what  is  called  the  '  standard  '  series  of 
English  literature."  Gait  died  at  Greenock,  in  1839. 

Two  of  Gait's  sons  went  to  Canada  before  his  decease, 
in  search  of  fortune,  and  of  one  of  these,  the  late  Sir 
A.  T.  Gait,  the  story  of  his  public  career  is  really  a  part 
of  the  history  of  the  Dominion.  The  other  son,  Thomas, 
was  long  one  of  the  Judges  in  Canada's  Court  of  Com 
mon  Pleas. 

A  pathetic  story  of  promise,  failure,  and  disappoint 
ment,  of  a  blasted  life  slowly  dragging  on  to  its  end  and 
finally  going  out,  alone,  in  the  very  depths  of  poverty 
and  despair,  is  furnished  by  a  study  of  the  life  of  Alex 
ander  Somerville,  the  once-famous  "  Whistler  at  the 
Plough."  He  was  born  at  Springfield,  in  Oldhamstocks 
Parish,  Haddingtonshire,  in  1811.  His  parents  were 
poor,  and  when  Alexander  went  to  work  as  a  cowherd 
at  sixpence  a  day  his  father's  earnings  were  only  six 
shillings  a  week.  The  boy  got  considerable  schooling, 
however,  in  parish  schools,  for  no  matter  how  poverty- 
stricken  they  may  be,  Scotch  parents  invariably  strive  to 
give  their  children  some  education,  even  at  the  cost  of 
privation.  As  he  grew  to  manhood,  while  earning  a 
scanty  income  as  a  common  laborer,  Somerville  took  a 
deep  interest  in  the  political  movements  which  then 
[1831-2]  agitated  Britain,  and  naturally  his  entire  sym 
pathies  were  with  his  own  class.  In  1832  he  lost  his  em 
ployment  on  account  of  the  dullness  of  trade,  and,  as 
nothing'  seemed  likely  to  turn  up  to  give  him  a  liveli 
hood,  he  enlisted  in  the  Scots  Greys.  That  regiment  was 
then  arrayed,  not  against  the  enemies  of  Britain,  but 
against  the  people  of  Britain.  The  men  did  not  like  the 
work.  Many  of  them  sent  letters  to  the  War  Office  stat 
ing  that  they  would  not  use  their  weapons  to  interfere 
with  a  public  meeting  or  to  hamper  the  people  in  the 
peaceful  prosecution  of  their  rights,  and  one  of  these  let 
ters  was  traced  to  Somerville.  It  was  determined  to 


364  THE     SCOT     jtN    AMERICA. 

make  an  example  of  some  one,  and  he  was  tried  by  court- 
martial  for  a  manufactured  offense,  found  guilty,  and  or 
dered  to  receive  one  hundred  lashes.  The  horrors  of 
this  punishment  were  graphically  described  long  after 
ward  by  his  own  pen.  The  flogging,  however,  had  far- 
reaching  results.  When  Somerville  left  the  hospital 
after  his  stripes  had  healed  he  found  that  the  matter  had 
been  a  theme  of  newspaper  discussion,  and  he  became  a 
hero  in  the  eyes  of  his  comrades.  He  gave  in  a  letter  to 
a  newspaper  an  account  of  the  real  cause  of  his  flogging, 
the  simple  fact  that  he  had  dared  to  give  expression  to 
his  thoughts,  and  this  letter,  although  it  disgusted  the 
authorities,  was  suffered  to  pass  without  notice  simply 
because  in  the  condition  of  public  opinion  they  were 
afraid  to  repeat  the  dose  they  had  formerly  administered. 
Meanwhile  a  subscription  was  set  on  foot,  Somerville's 
discharge  was  purchased,  and  with  £300  in  his  pocket  he 
returned  to  Scotland,  helped  his  parents,  started  in  busi 
ness — and  failed  in  six  months.  He  next  took  service 
with  the  Spanish  Legion  in  the  Peninsula,  serving  two 
years.  Returning  to  Britain,  he  helped  to  warn  the  peo 
ple  against  foolish  revolutionary  measures,  and  in  that 
way  did  more  service  to  the  working  classes  than  though 
he  had,  as  many  desired,  become  one  of  their  aggressive 
leaders.  He  commenced  his  literary  career  as  a  corre 
spondent  of  the  "  Manchester  Examiner,"  and  published, 
among  other  things,  an  account  of  his  adventures  in 
Spain.  In  1852  his  famous  letters,  signed  by  "  One  Who 
Has  Whistled  at  the  Plough,"  appeared,  and  afforded 
him  an  opportunity  for  utilizing  the  information  he  pos 
sessed  of  political  movements,  and  his  views  on  the  bet 
terment  of  the  working  classes,  as  well  as  reminiscences 
of  his  travels,  and  comments  on  all  topics  then  interesting 
Britain.  These  letters  created  a  wide  interest,  and  the 
author  was  more  talked  about  than  any  other  journalistic 
contributor  for  a  year  or  two.  His  autobiography  (issued 
in  1848)  also  enjoyed  a  wide  sale. 

In  1858  he  went  to  Canada,  and  for  a  time  was  editor 
of  the  "  Canadian  Illustrated  News."  His  clear,  vigor 
ous  English,  the  lucidity  of  his  arguments  for  any  meas- 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  365 

ure  he  advocated,  and  his  knowledge  of  the  world  were 
visible  in  everything  he  wrote.  But  he  never  seemed  to 
"  catch  hold  "  in  Canada.  He  wrote  in  praise  of  it  to 
many  of  the  home  papers,  told  of  its  resources  and  possi 
bilities  in  glowing  language,  and  did,  honestly,  every 
thing  that  lay  in  his  power  to  help  to  build  it  up.  Yet  his 
career  there  was  a  slow  but  steady  descent  into  poverty— 
poverty  of  the  most  abject  description.  He  published 
several  books  in  Canada,  but  they  yielded  no  return,  and 
his  latter  years  were  spent  in  neglect;  often,  indeed,  in 
actual  want.  The  man  outlived  his  friends,  and,  linger 
ing  on  the  stage,  had  been  relegated  to  the  rear,  and  was 
unnoticed  and  forgotten.  The  last  time  the  writer  sa\\ 
him,  in  the  streets  of  Toronto,  his  apparel  was  that  of  a 
beggar,  a  collection  of  remnants  of  clothing  that  had 
seen  better  days,  and  his  conversation  was  of  the  most 
despondent  description.  It  is  difficult  to  account  for  this 
man's  fall.  Faults  he  had,  as  have  all  men,  but  his  abili 
ties  ought  to  have  made  his  life  comfortable,  should  have 
kept  his  lines  in  pleasant  places.  His  career,  even  out 
side  of  his  literary  labors,  was  a  useful  one,  and  he  ought 
to  be  remembered,  if  for  nothing  else,  as  the  one  whose 
sufferings  led  to  the  final  abolition  of  flogging  in  the 
British  Army.  He  died  at  Toronto,  under  painful  cir 
cumstances,  in  1885. 

Returning  to  the  United  States  after  this  sad  record  of 
a  Canadian  litterateur's  career,  we  take  up  a  beautiful, 
lovable  Christian  life,  the  life  of  one  who  was  a  man  of 
letters  and  at  the  same  time  a  hard-working  and  devoted 
minister  of  the  Gospel.  This  was  Robert  Turnbull,  who 
for  twenty-four  years  was  minister  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church  at  Hartford,  Conn.  He  was  born,  in  1809,  at 
Whitburn,  Linlithgowshire,  and  graduated  at  Edinburgh 
University.  He  studied  theology  under  Dr.  Chalmers, 
and,  becoming  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of 
immersion,  he  became  a  Baptist,  and,  after  being  admit 
ted  to  preach,  he  traveled  a  good  deal  through  Scotland 
and  England,  occupying  such  pulpits  as  chance  directed. 
In  1833  he  emigrated  to  America,  and,  after  brief  pastor 
ates  in  Danbury,  Detroit,  Hartford,  and  Boston,  he  re- 


366  THE     SCOT    IN    AMERICA. 

turned  to  Hartford  and  spent  there  the  active  years  of 
his  life.  For  a  long  period  Mr.  Turnbull  was  joint  editor 
of  "  The  Christian  Review."  He  edited  an  edition  of  Sir 
William  Hamilton's  "  Discussions  in  Philosophy,"  and 
wrote  several  works  worthy  of  a  better  fate  than  the  neg 
lect  which  has  apparently  overtaken  them.  In  1851  he 
resigned  his  pastorate  and  served  as  Secretary  of  the 
Connecticut  Baptist  State  Convention,  filling  in  his  time 
with  literary  work,  and  preaching  in  various  places  as  oc 
casion  offered.  His  closing  years  were  full  of  peace  and 
hope,  a  beautiful  sunset,  and  his  death  at  Hartford,  in 
1877,  was  really  for  him  a  victory. 

This  is  hardly  the  place  to  estimate  the  value  of  Dr. 
TurnbulFs  religious  writings  from  a  purely  theological 
point  of  view,  but  the  statements  in  all  his  books  that 
come  under  that  class  are  so  clearly  laid  down,  their  lan 
guage  is  so  precise,  that  even  a  layman  is  never  at  a  loss 
in  following  his  arguments,  while  their  thoughts  are  ever 
impressive  and  elevated.  Of  his  secular  books,  we  re 
gard  his  "  Genius  of  Scotland  "  as  the  best,  possibly  be 
cause  national  prejudice  may  affect  our  judgment,  possi 
bly  because  we  really  feel  that  he  threw  his  whole  heart 
into  that  particular  work.  We  know  no  book  which 
somehow  answers  the  home-cravings  of  the  Scot  abroad 
so  well  as  this,  none  that  is  more  enthusiastic  in  its  praise 
of  the  old  land,  without  running  at  the  same  time  into 
platitudes  of  extravagance.  There  is  not  a  line  in  it  that 
is  not  the  result  of  observation  or  personal  reminiscence, 
its  sentiments  are  always  pure  and  exalted,  and  it  not 
only  recalls  the  story  of  the  land  and  describes  its  scenery 
and  its  personages — historical  or  noteworthy — but  every 
page  seems  bathed  in  that  spirit  of  poetry  which  has 
given  to  Scotland  the  title  of  "  Land  of  Song." 

The  State  of  Massachusetts  has,  as  the  historian  of  its 
share  in  the  civil  war,  William  Scoular,  a  native  of  Kil- 
barchan.  Born  in  that  once  quaint  village  in  1814, 
Scoular  settled  in  America  in  1830,  and  for  a  time  worked 
at  his  trade  of  a  calico  printer.  From  that  he  drifted  into 
journalism,  and  from  1841  to  1847  w#s  editor  and  pro- 
proprietor  of  the  Lowell  "  Courier/'  Then,  for  some  five 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  367 

years,  he  resided  in  Boston  as  editor  and  part  proprietor 
of  the  "  Daily  Atlas."  The  years  from  1853  to  1858  he 
spent  in  Ohio,  mainly  as  one  of  the  editorial  staff  of  the 
"  Cincinnati  Gazette."  In  1857  he  was  chosen  Adjutant 
General  of  Ohio,  and  he  was  placed  in  the  same  office  in 
Massachusetts  after  his  return  to  the  Old  Bay  State, 
when  he  settled  in  Boston  as  editor  of  the  "  Atlas  and 
Bee."  Four  times  he  was  elected  to  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Representatives,  and  once  was  returned  to  the 
State  Senate,  and  these  honors  may  fairly  be  regarded  as 
indicative  of  his  personal  popularity  and  of  the  trust  re 
posed  in  him  by  his  fellow-citizens.  On  leaving  the  Ad 
jutant  General's  office  in  1866  he  occupied  himself  mainly 
with  the  compilation  of  his  volumes  on  the  "  History  of 
Massachusetts  in  the  Civil  War,"  which  were  published 
at  Boston  in  1868  and  1871.  Soon  after  the  completion 
of  this  important  work,  Mr.  Secular  passed  away — in 
1872 — at  West  Roxbury,  Mass. 

An  enthusiastic,  kindly  Scot,  whose  name,  we  fear,  will 
soon  be  barely  remembered,  was  Robert  Macfarlane, 
who  for  seventeen  years  was  editor  of  the  New  York 
"  Scientific  American,"  and  was  the  author  of  a  treatise 
on  u  Propellers  and  Steam  Navigation,"  which  was  pub 
lished  in  1851  and  was  reprinted  in  1854,  and  who  edited 
Love's  "  Treatise  on  the  Art  of  Dyeing"  for  a  Philadel 
phia  concern  in  1868.  Such  works  rarely  bring  a  man 
much  posthumous  fame,  and  Mr.  Macfarlane's  best  work 
really  was  done  in  the  columns  of  the  "  Scottish-Ameri 
can  Journal,"  to  which  lie  was  for  a  long  time  a  steady 
contributor.  To  its  pages  he  contributed  a  series  of  pa 
per  on  the  "  Scot  in  America,"  and  one  on  "  Scotland  Re 
visited,"  which  were  read  with  delight  wherever  that 
newspaper  circulated.  On  Scottish  history,  manners, 
customs,  and  family  tradition  he  had  a  wonderful  store 
of  information,  and  he  freely  communicated  it  as  a  com 
mentary  on  anything  that  occurred  to  him  in  the  form 
of  letters  and  articles,  week  after  week,  for  many  years. 
For  a  long  time  Mr.  Macfarlane  carried  on  business  as  a 
dyer  in  Albany,  and  while  in  that  city  was  a  "  Scot  of  the 
Scots,"  and  took  a  very  active  interest  in  carrying  on  the 


368  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

work  of  its  St.  Andrew's  Society.  But  the  climate  of  that 
good  old  Dutch  town  with  a  good  old  Scotch  name  did 
not  agree  with  his  health,  and  his  closing  years  were 
spent  in  pleasant  retirement  in  Brooklyn,  where  he  died 
in  1883.  He  was  born  at  Rutherglen  in  1812,  and  always 
used  the  name  of  his  birthplace  as  a  ncm  de  plume  in  his 
communications  to  the  press.  It  seems  a  pity  that  a 
selection,  at  least,  of  his  writings  has  not  been  published. 
Such  a  volume  would  have  proved  acceptable  to  many 
readers,  and  been  the  best  monument  that  could  be  raised 
to  his  memory.  Peace  be  to  his  ashes.  He  sleeps  in  the 
beautiful  Rural  Cemetery  of  Albany,  with  many  a  once 
well-kenned,  leal-hearted  Scot  lying  at  rest  around  him. 

A  conspicuous  illustration  of  how  the  Scot  can  press 
upward  from  the  humblest  walks  of  life  is  afforded  us  by 
a  glance  at  the  career  of  the  Rev.  Prof.  James  C.  Moffat 
of  Princeton,  who  died  in  that  academic  town  on  June  7, 
1890.  His  father  was  a  shepherd  at  Glencree,  and  there 
the  future  teacher  and  author  was  born  in  1811.  His 
first  employment  was  as  a  shepherd's  boy,  and  his  educa 
tion  was  scanty.  At  sixteen  years  of  age  he  apprenticed 
himself  to  a  printer,  as  much  for  the  sake  of  ?3eing  in  a 
way  to  get  access  to  books  as  for  the  remuneration,  al 
though  that,  of  course,  was  an  important  consideration. 
He  so  well  improved  his  time  that  in  a  few  years  he  had 
attained  considerable  mastery  over  Latin,  Greek,  He 
brew,  French,  German,  and  other  tongues.  He  had  a 
special  fondness  for  Oriental  languages,  and  made  a  par 
ticular  study  of  that  written  and  spoken  in  Persia.  In 
1833  he  emigrated  to  America  and  managed  to  enter 
Princeton  College,  where  he  graduated  in  1835.  After  a 
year  or  two's  experience  as  a  tutor,  Mr.  Moffat,  in  1839, 
was  appointed  Professor  of  Classics  in  Lafayette  College. 
In  1841  he  transferred  his  services  to  Miami  University, 
Ohio.  While  in  that  Commonwealth  he  was  licensed  to 
preach.  In  1853  he  returned  to  Princeton  as  Professor 
of  Latin  and  History,  and  he  held  various  professorships 
in  the  college  and  Theological  Seminary  there  until  he 
retired,  in  1877. 

Dr.  Moffat  was  a  poet,  and  had  all  the  delicate  fancy, 


MEN     OP     LETTERS.  369 

grace  of  language,  and  brilliancy  and  originality  of 
thought  which  mark  the  possessor  of  the  essential  quali 
ties  of  a  son  of  song.  His  most  ambitious  essay,  "  Al- 
wyn,  a  Romance  of  Study,"  is  handicapped  by  its  title 
and  the  fact  that  the  current  taste  does  not  favor  a  serious 
work — a  work  extending  through  seven  long  cantos. 
Still,  it  is  a  really  meritorious  poem,  a  work  deserving  of 
study,  and  one  that  is  certain  to  hold  the  attention  of  any 
reader  with  the  slightest  taste  for  poetry  who  fairly  enters 
into  its  spirit.  An  earlier  poem,  "  A  Rhyme  of  the  North 
Countrie,"  is  more  of  a  story,  and  some  of  its  passages — 
notably  those  descriptive  of  arctic  scenes — are  equal  to 
anything  which  is  to  be  found  in  American  poetic  liter 
ature.  Some  of  Dr.  Moffat's  shorter  pieces,  especially 
those  of  a  religious  cast,  have  been  very  popular  and 
been  reprinted  over  and  over  again  in  various  forms. 

But  it  is  as  a  prose  writer  that  Dr.  Moffat  claims  at 
tention  in  this  place.  In  1853  ne  published  at  Cincinnati 
a  memoir  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  a  good  piece  of  literary  work 
manship,  inasmuch  as  it  tells  its  story  completely  and 
evinces  a  thorough  knowledge  and  appreciation  of  the 
subject's  character  and  of  the  principles  which  governed 
and  directed  his  career.  His  best-known  work  is  his 
"  Comparative  History  of  Religions,"  in  two  volumes. 
In  this  he  brings  to  bear  his  profound  scholarship,  his 
keen  logical  analytical  spirit,  and  exemplifies  in  every 
page  his  desire  to  be  just — to  maintain  his  self-appointed 
position  as  a  judge — without  at  the  same  time  sacrificing 
one  iota  of  his  own  convictions.  Indeed,  the  work  tends 
to  show  the  correctness  of  these  convictions  and  demon 
strate  the  truth  and  inspiration  of  the  faith  consecrated  at 
Calvary.  As  a  mere  compendium  of  the  leading  points 
in  the  various  beliefs  treated,  the  work  holds  a  valuable 
place  in  religious  literature.  Its  statements  are  every 
where  to  be  relied  upon,  and  the  concise  and  clear  form 
in  which  they  are  presented  make  the  volumes  of  value 
not  only  to  the  student,  but  to  the  general  reader.  In 
1874  Dr.  Moffat  published  an  account  of  a  ramble 
through  Scotland,  a  work  which  was  read  with  much  in 
terest  by  his  countrymen  in  America.  It  was  another 


370  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

delightful  tribute  to  the  motherland  from  a  Scot  abroad, 
and  is  to  a  great  extent  written  in  the  manner  of  Dr. 
Turnbull's  "  Genius  of  Scotland."  The  spirit  which 
prompted  both  books  and  is  felt  throughout  their  pages 
is  certainly  the  same. 

An  industrious  worker  in  Scottish  literature,  and  espe 
cially  in  the  field  of  Burns  literature,  is  John  D.  Ross, 
LL.  D.,  of  Brooklyn.  Dr.  Ross  was  born  at  Edinburgh 
in  1853,  and  settled  in  New  York  in  his  twentieth  year. 
His  first  volume  was  a  collection  of  "  Celebrated  Songs 
of  Scotland,"  an  extensive  work,  copiously  annotated, 
and  soon  after  appeared  an  interesting  volume  on  "  The 
Scottish  Poets  in  America,''  to  which  the  present  writer 
has  been  under  considerable  obligation  in  connection 
with  these  pages.  A  volume  containing  a  selection  of 
poems  by  various  authors,  entitled  "  Round  Burns's 
Grave, "  next  attracted  attention  on  both  sides  of  the  At 
lantic,  and  speedily  ran  through  two  editions.  Since  1892 
Dr.  Ross  has  published  an  annual  volume  of  "  Burns- 
iana,"  an  invaluable  work  to  lovers  of  Scotia's  great  bard, 
and  he  has  also  issued  a  number  of  other  books  having 
the  "  high  priest  of  Scottish  song"  as  their  theme.  Be 
sides  his  book  work,  Dr.  Ross  is  a  regular  contributor 
to  many  American  newspapers.  Another  volume  on 
Scottish  poets  in  America  will  also  appear  soon  from  his 
pen,  and  he  seems  inclined  to  make  a  complete  study  of 
the  writers  who  can  come  under  that  head. 

Among-  men  of  letters,  newspaper  writers  are  surely 
entitled  to  a  place,  even  although  their  work,  being  main 
ly  anonymous,  passes  away  with  the  fleeting  hour  and  be 
comes  at  best  only  a  memory,  like  the  impersonation  of 
life  and  character  on  the  stage.  The  American  news 
paper  press  owes  a  great  deal  to  the  labors  of  Scotsmen, 
and  they  are  to  be  found  in  all  ranks,  from  the  case  to 
the  sanctum.  They  have  had  a  full  share  of  the  prizes  in 
the  profession,  too,  and  in  the  United  States  and  Canada 
have  been  numerous  enough  and  prominent  enough  to 
encourage  the  hope  that  in  the  near  future  some  one  will 
make  a  special  study  of  their  lives  and  writings  and  in 
fluence. 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  371 

In  this  work  we  cannot  even  pretend  to  do  justice  to 
the  claims  of  this  vast  army,  and  must  rest  contented 
with  adducing  a  few  instances  to  indicate  its  extent  and 
place  in  the  history  of  the  literature  of  the  continent. 

The  trouble  is  to  know  where  to  draw  the  line  that  sep 
arates  the  man  of  letters  from  the  newspaper  man  pure 
and  simple.  In  fact,  it  cannot  really  be  drawn,  for  the 
true  newspaper  man  is  a  ubiquitous  sort  of  fellow,  and 
has  the  knack  of  bobbing  up  and  sailing  to  the  front  in 
all  sorts  of  directions. 

The  late  James  Lawson  of  Yonkers  is  a  case  in  point. 
He  might,  with  justice,  have  been  given  a  place  among 
the  poets  or  among  the  business  men  as  in  connection 
with  the  newspaper  workers,  yet  his  long  connection 
with  the  press  of  New  York  would  seem  to  warrant  news- 
paperdom  as  being  the  sphere  which  really  prompted  all 
his  other  work  and  dictated  the  leading  events  in  his  long 
and  honorable  career.  Mr.  Lawson  was  born  at  Glas 
gow  in  1799,  and  settled  in  New  York  in  1815.  In  1827, 
after  a  thorough  apprenticeship  in  commercial  pursuits, 
he  turned  his  thoughts  toward  literary  work,  and  became 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  now  long-defunct  "  Morning 
Courier  "  of  New  York.  Two  years  later  he  retired  from 
this  publication  and  joined  the  forces  of  the  "  Mercan 
tile  Advertiser,"  in  which  he  did  some  of  his  best  work. 
After  several  years,  Mr.  Lawson  re-enlisted  in  business, 
and  as  an  agent  for  marine  insurance  became  widely 
known  and  implicitly  trusted  by  the  merchants  of  the 
city.  But  newspaper  work  continued  his  amusement, 
and  almost  till  the  end  of  his  career,  in  1880,  he  was  a 
constant  contributor  of  news,  criticisms,  essays,  and 
poems  to  the  press  of  New  York.  His  fugitive  poems 
were  gathered  together  in  1857  in  a  volume  intended 
mainly  for  private  circulation,  and  in  1859  he  printed  his 
most  ambitious  and  important  work,  a  tragedy  under  the 
title  of  "  Lidderdale;  or,  The  Border  Chief."  So  far  as 
we  know,  it  was  never  acted,  and  it  seems  to  us  rather  a 
composition  to  be  read  than  to  be  placed  on  the  stage. 
This  is  singular,  considering  that  Mr.  Lawson  made  the 
theatre  a  special  study  for  years.  A  play  written  in  early 


372  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

life — "  Giordano  •" — was  placed  on  the  boards  of  the  old 
Park  Theatre  in  1832,  or  thereabout,  but  proved  a  failure, 
mainly  because  the  poet  predominated  over  the  play 
wright  in  the  composition  of  the  work. 

The  most  conspicuous  example  of  the  newspaper  man 
pure  and  simple  in  the  history  of  American  journalism 
was  undoubtedly  Janies  Gordon  Bennett,  who  was  born 
at  New  Mill,  near  Keith,  in  1795.  Possibly  the  life  of  no 
American  newspaper  man  has  been  so  often  and  so  com 
pletely  told  or  is  more  generally  known  among  people 
who  take  an  interest  in  biographical  writings.  He  re 
ceived  his  education  at  a  Roman  Catholic  institution  in 
Scotland,  his  parents  being  of  that  faith.  In  1819  he 
began  life  in  the  New  World  at  Halifax,  N.  S.,  as  a 
teacher.  A  few  months'  trial  of  this  work  proved  disap 
pointing,  and,  proceeding  to  Boston,  Mr.  Bennett  se 
cured  employment  as  a  proofreader,  and  also  tried  to 
establish  a  reputation  as  a  poet.  After  a  brief  experience 
in  Charleston  as  a  journalistic  writer  he  settled  in  New 
York,  and  newspaper  work  became  the  business  of  his 
life.  He  became  a  typical  Bohemian,  owning  a  short 
lived  sheet  at  one  time,  and  at  others  picking  up  a  living 
as  a  reporter  and  space  writer,  excepting  for  a  brief  ex 
perience  as  an  editorial  writer.  The  man,  by  these 
changes  and  ups  and  downs,  was  really  serving  his  ap 
prenticeship,  and  it  was  only  completed  when,  on  May 
6,  1835,  ne  issued  from  a  cellar  in  Wall  Street  the  first 
number  of  the  "  New  York  Herald."  Most  of  the  earlier 
issues  were  written  mainly  by  himself,  and  he  infused  his 
vitality  into  every  line.  The  history  of  that  newspaper 
belongs  to  the  history  of  American  progress — of  Ameri 
can  civilization,  it  may  be  said.  It  was  from  the  first  a 
medium  of  news,  and  the  enterprise  shown  in  obtaining 
intelligence  of  every  description  earlier  than  did  any 
other  sheet,  the  striking  arrangement  of  the  news  matter, 
and  the  sacrifice  of  merely  literary  style  to  get  a  story 
before  the  reader  without  lo^s  of  time  and  in  the  most  in 
teresting  manner  possible  soon  made  it  the  most-talked- 
about  newspaper  on  the  continent.  As  his  means  pro 
gressed  and  opportunities  arose,  Mr,  Bennett  seemed  to 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  373 

develop  in  enterprise  and  liberality  and  in  the  keenness 
<of  his  foresight  for  news.  He  dropped,  apparently,  all 
desire  to  be  recognized  as  a  man  of  letters,  and  his  ambi 
tion  was  to  be  known  as  the  editor  of  the  greatest  and 
most  talked  of  American  newspaper,  and  that  ambition 
he  fully  realized  long  before  his  death,  in  1872. 

Foremost  in  the  ranks  of  Canadian  journalism  was 
George  Brown  of  Toronto,  editor  of  the  "  Globe,"  and  a 
statesman  who  occupied  a  prominent  place  in  the  coun 
cils  of  his  party,  and  for  years  was  a  power  in  the  politics 
of  the  Dominion.  He  inherited  most  of  his  journalistic 
ability  from  his  father,  Peter  Brown,  of  Edinburgh,  who 
was  once  engaged  in  business  in  that  city  as  a  bookseller. 
Financial  reverses  induced  the  latter  to  leave  Scotland  in 
1838,  and,  settling  in  New  York  with  his  family,  he  be 
came  editor  of  the  "  Albion,"  then  and  for  a  long  time 
after  the  recognized  organ  of  British  thought  and  inter 
ests  in  America.  After  four  years  of  this  work,  the  "  Al 
bion  "  then  being  the  property  of  Dr.  Bartlett,  British 
Consul  at  New  York,  Mr.  Brown  started  an  opposition 
sheet,  "  The  British  Chronicle."  The  "  Albion/'  how 
ever,  was  too  powerful  and  popular  to  be  then  easily 
crushed — indeed,  it  long  after  died  a  lingering  death  of 
pure  inanition — Mr.  Brown  had  not  sufficient  capital  to 
sink  into  his  enterprise  to  insure  its  success,  and  after 
some  eighteen  months  of  existence  it  quietly  passed 
away.  In  1843  the  family  moved  to  Toronto,  and  Mr. 
Brown  became  editor  of  a  weekly  paper  called  "  The 
Banner,"  then  started  under  the  auspices  of  the  Free 
Church  Party  in  Canada.  He  died  in  that  city,  in  1863. 

George  Brown  was  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1821,  went 
with  his  father  and  the  rest  of  the  family  to  Toronto  and 
became  the  publisher,  and  was  regarded  as  proprietor  of, 
the  "  Banner,"  of  which  Mr.  Peter  Brown  was  editor. 
That  office  did  not  afford  him  much  scope  for  his  ener 
gies,  and  his  opportunity  came  in  April,  1844,  when  the 
first  number  of  the  "  Globe  "  was  issued  as  the  organ  of 
the  Reform  Party  in  Canadian  politics.  Under  his  direc 
tion  it  became  one  of  the  leaders  of  public  sentiment 
throughout  the  country.  Mr.  Brown  aimed  to  make  the 


374  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

"  Globe  "  a  perfect  mirror  of  the  world's  news,  and  he 
accomplished  his  aim.  As  a  mere  newspaper  it  soon  held 
a  high  rank  in  contemporary  journalism,  and  its  wide 
circulation  showed  that  its  merits  as  such  were  fully  ap 
preciated  by  the  public  to  whose  wants  it  catered.  But 
it  is  questionable  if  it  could  have  attained  the  influence  it 
long-  afterward  enjoyed — and  still  enjoys — had  not 
George  Brown  personally  obtained  a  prominent  voice  in 
the  councils  of  his  party.  In  that  respect  his  career 
really  belongs  to  the  history  of  Canada,  and  need  not  be 
dwelt  upon  here,  except  to  state  that  he  was  a  member  of 
Parliament  from  1851  till  1861,  and  was  so  much  recog 
nized  as  the  leader  of  his  party  that  he  was  asked,  in 
1858,  to  form  a  Ministry,  with  himself  as  Premier,  and 
did  so,  although  his  Ministry  was  a  short-lived  one — 
lasting  only  two  days.  Mr.  Brown  continued  to  direct 
the  destinies  of  the  "  Globe  " — lk  the  Scotsman's  Bible,"  it 
was  often  called — until  his  death  in  Toronto,  in  1880.  In 
that  city  a  statue  has  since  been  erected  to  his  memory. 

Another  conspicuous  example  of  the  intimate  union  of 
journalism  and  politics  in  Canada  was  John  Neilson, 
who  was  born  at  Balmaghie,  Kirkcudbrightshire,  in 
1770,  and  became  editor,  in  1/97,  of  the  "  Quebec  Ga 
zette."  In  1818  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Quebec 
Assembly,  and  was  at  one  time  Speaker  of  that  body.  In 
1840  he  sat  in  the  Canadian  Parliament,  and  exerted  an 
active  influence  in  public  affairs  until  his  death,  at  Que 
bec,  in  1848.  A  much  less  satisfactory,  and  far  more 
stormy  and  disappointing  career,  was  that  of  John  Less- 
lie,  a  Dundee  man,  who  died  at  Eglinton,  Ontario,  in 
1885.  He  settled  in  Canada  in  1820,  when  only  eleven 
years  of  age,  and  for  over  ten  years  prior  to  1854  was 
editor  and  proprietor  of  the  "  Toronto  Examiner,"  which 
ultimately  was  purchased  by  Air.  George  Brown  and  in 
corporated  with  the  u  Globe.'1  The  quieter,  but  none  the 
less  useful,  aspects  of  Canadian  journalistic  lives  are  well 
represented  by  such  careers  as  those  of  Mr.  George  Pirie, 
editor  of  the  "  Guelph  Herald,"  who  was  born  at  Aber 
deen,  in  1799,  and  died  at  Guelph,  in  1870,  and  of  Thomas 
McQueen,  editor  of  the  "  Huron  Signal,"  a  native  of 


MEN     OF     LETTERS.  375 

Ayrshire,  who  died  at  Goderich,  in  1861,  in  his  fifty- 
eighth  year.  Both  these  men  had  poetic  tastes,  both 
gave  at  least  one  volume  of  poetry — poetry  of  more  than 
average  quality — to  add  to  the  wealth  oi  Canadian  liter 
ature,  and  both  were  distinguished  throughout  their  lives 
for  their  enthusiasm  on  every  matter  pertaining  to  the 
land  of  their  birth. 

But  this  theme  of  Scottish-American  journalism,  as  we 
contemplate  it,  seems  really  inexhaustible,  and,  gratify 
ing  as  it  is  to  our  natural  pride,  we  must  content  our 
selves  with  closing  the  record  with  the  few,  but  repre 
sentative,  names  so  far  adduced. 

We  would  like  to  enlarge  upon  the  careers  of  the  two 
Swintons — William  and  John — of  New  York,  of  John 
Dougall  of  Montreal,  of  Whitelaw  Reid  of  New  York,  of 
George  Dawson  of  Albany,  of  Andrew  McLean  of 
Brooklyn,  of  Donald  Morrison,  once  of  Toronto  and 
afterward  of  New  York;  of  Dr.  A.  M.  Stewart,  editor 
and  owner  of  the  New  York  "  Scottish  American/'  and  a 
galaxy  of  other  names  which  are  more  or  less  prominent 
in  the  history  of  American  newspapers,  past  and  present, 
but  the  subject  is  too  interesting  to  form  the  close  of  a 
chapter,  and  with  this  brief  mention  or  acknowledgment 
we  must  leave  it.  Surely,  in  view  of  what  has  been  writ 
ten,  it  will  be  acknowledged  that  Scotsmen  have  at  least 
done  their  full  share  in  shaping  and  building  up  the  liter 
ature  and  thought  of  the  New  Hemisphere! 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

AMONG     THE     POETS. 

FOR  a  variety  of  reasons,  it  is  a  difficult  matter  to  re 
flect  in  a  single  chapter  any  true  idea  of  the  variety  and 
value  of  the  contributions  which  Scotsmen  in  America 
have  made  to  the  poetic  wealth  of  the  continent.  We' 
hold  that,  even  though  the  Scottish  poets  domiciled  in 
America  continue  to  write  in  their  native  Doric,  and 
though  their  utterances  are  redolent  of  Scotland,  it  is 
American  literature  that  is  enriched  by  their  song.  Time 
has  shown  that  it  is  seldom  the  song  uttered  on  the  soil 
of  the  New  World  is  carried  back  across  the  sea ;  indeed, 
the  instances  of  that  could  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of 
one  hand,  and  the  Scot  in  America  who  commits  the  sin 
of  rhyme  has  mainly  to  look  to  the  land  in  which  he  lives 
for  a  clientage,  and  for  that  meed  of  praise  which  he  re 
gards  as  his  due. 

Scottish-American  singers  have  been,  in  proportion  to 
their  numbers,  as  plentiful  as  their  brothers  at  home, 
and,  while  for  none  can  be  claimed  the  possession  of  the 
very  highest  gifts,  yet  there  are  not  a  few  whose  songs 
have  added  to  the  pleasantness  of  life  and  the  brightness 
of  the  world;  and  by  the  Scottish-American  writers  of 
the  passing  day  there  are  many  songs  being  contributed 
to  the  national  anthology  which  will  live  for,  at  least, 
some  years  after  the  singers  have  laid  down  the  harp  and 
joined  the  silent  realms — to  us — of  the  great  majority. 
We  do  not  join  in  the  cry  against  mediocre  poets  and 
poetasters  and  the  like.  Every  honest  effort,  no  matter 
in  what  direction,  ought  to  be  encouraged  rather  than 
sneered  at,  and  even  if  a  man's  song  does  no  more  than 
soften  and  mellow  his  own  heart,  or  afford  a  glint  of  hap- 

376 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  377 

piness  to  his  ain  ingleside,  the  song  has  not  been  written 
in  vain.  By  constantly  tuning  the  harp  a  song  might 
be  evolved,  even  by  chance,  to  which  the  world  will  lis 
ten;  but,  if  not,  there  is  an  exalted  pleasure  in  the  work 
for  the  worker.  Men  who  even  "  dabble  "  in  poetry  are 
rarely  found  in  any  ranks  but  those  who  are  earnestly 
striving  to  make  the  world  better.  Even  when  they  are 
not,  the  moral  of  their  fall  is  so  evident  that  the  life-story 
is  of  some  value  to  the  world. 

Except  for  the  fact  that  he  wrote  one  song—"  Rural 
Content  •'' — which  is  still  a  favorite  in  the  south  of  Scot 
land,  Andrew  Scott  would  doubtless  have  been  forgotten 
long  ere  this.  But  he  was  a  sweet  singer  whose  whole 
life  was  cast  in  hard  lines.  Born  in  1757,  in  the  parish  of 
Bowden,  Roxburghshire,  a  shepherd's  son,  he  died,  in 
1839,  an  agricultural  laborer,  although  his 'appointment 
as  church  officer,  or  "  minister's  man,"  in  his  later  years 
eked  out  his  scanty  means  a  little  and  recognized  the 
worthiness  of  his  life.  When  he  grew  to  manhood,  Scott 
got  tired  of  herding  sheep  and  waiting  on  cattle,  and  en 
listed  in  the  Eightieth  Regiment.  Before  this,  however, 
he  had  begun  to  rhyme,  the  desire  thereto  being  inspired 
by  a  copy  of  Ramsay's  "  Gentle  Shepherd  "  he  had  man 
aged  to  buy,  and  with  which  he  beguiled  many  an  hour 
in  the  fields.  Soon  after  he  enlisted  he  accompanied  the 
regiment  to  the  fighting  Colonies  in  America,  and  while 
in  camp  on  Staten  Island,  Scott's  poetical  abilities  be 
came  generally  known  among  his  comrades,  and  he  was 
ever  ready  to  weave  a  rhyme  to  express  their  sentiments, 
or  compose  a  song  to  lighten  their  hearts.  He  served  in 
five  campaigns,  and  was  with  the  army  that  surrendered 
under  Lord  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown  in  1783.  On  retir 
ing  from  "  sodgerin',"  Scott  returned  to  Bowden,  and 
there  passed  his  remaining  years,  the  monotony  of  life 
being  varied  by  the  publication  on  three  occasions  of  a 
volume  of  his  poems,  all  of  which  were  favorably  received 
and  won  him  many  friends,  but  yielded  no  alleviation  of 
the  hardships  of  his  condition;  yet  he  never  grumbled, 
and  continued  singing  to  the  end  of  his  journey. 

Mrs.  Anne  Grant  of  Laggan,  by  her  "  Memoirs  of  an 


378  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

American  Lady/'  has  won  a  place  in  American  literature 
that  undoubtedly  is  permanent,  for  her  descriptions  of 
American  life  before  the  Revolution  are  so  vivid  and  so 
full  of  character  that  their  value  will  remain,  no  matter 
how  much  literary  fashions  may  change.  Mrs.  Grant 
was  the  daughter  of  Duncan  Me  Vicar,  an  officer  in  the 
British  Army.  Although  born  in  Glasgow,  in  1755,  Mrs. 
Grant's  first  impressions  \vere  of  America,  for,  having 
been  sent  to  the  Colonies  with  his  regiment,  McVicar's 
family  followed  him  across  the  Atlantic  when  Anne  was 
only  some  three  years  of  age.  Quick  in  observation  and 
unusually  receptive  in  her  studies,  the  young  girl's  early 
education  was  sufficiently  attended  to  by  her  mother  and 
by  a  Sergeant  in  her  father's  company  so  that  she  lost 
nothing  by  the  want  of  ordinary  school  facilities,  and 
during  the  years  in  her  girlhood  when  she  resided  with 
the  Schuyler  family  at  Albany — of  whom  she  afterward 
wrote  so  lovingly — she  acquired  not  only  the  usual  ac 
complishments  and  graces  of  young  women  of  her  time, 
but  became  an  adept  in  the  Dutch  tongue,  then  gener 
ally  spoken  among  the  grandees  of  Albany  society.  Ill 
health  compelled  her  father  to  return  to  Scotland  in  1768 
with  his  family,  even  at  the  cost  of  sacrificing  some  land 
he  had  purchased,  for  it  remained  unsold,  and  was  con 
fiscated  when  the  Revolution  broke  out.  In  Scotland  he 
secured  the  position  of  Barrackmaster  at  Fort  Augustus, 
and  it  was  while  residing  there  that  Anne  met  her  future 
husband,  the  Rev.  James  Grant,  the  military  chaplain  of 
the  fort.  Shortly  after  their  marriage,  in  1779,  Mr.  Grant 
became  minister  of  Laggan.  There  his  wife's  happiest 
years  were  spent.  She  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  Gael- 
lie  tongue,  was  beloved  by  her  husband's  people,  and  her 
own  large  family  idolized  her  as  they  grew  to  appreciate 
her  tenderness  and  devotion.  Her  happy  home,  how 
ever,  was  broken  up  by  the  death  of  her  husband,  in  1801, 
and,  past  the  meridian  of  life,  Mrs.  Grant  had  to  face 
the  world  and  enter  upon  a  struggle  for  existence, 
with  eight  children  depending  on  her  for  support.  She 
secured  the  lease  of  a  small  farm,  and,  with  it  as  a  stand 
by,  commenced  her  literary  career  in  1803  by  publishing 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  379 

a  volume  of  her  poems.  This  was  so  well  received  that  it 
enabled  her  to  pay  off  all  her  debts  and  purchase  several 
necessary  articles'  for  the  farm,  and  by  this  much  her 
anxieties  and  troubles  were  lessened.  Her  "  Letters  from 
the  Mountains,"  published  in  1806,  soon  passed  through 
several  editions,  and  gave  her  a  place  among  contempo 
rary  writers  that  henceforth  made  her  depend  solely  upon 
her  pen.  In  1810  she  settled  in  Edinburgh,  where  her  home 
became  a  literary  centre,  and  Henry  Mackenzie,  Walter 
Scott,  and  the  Scottish  literary  lights  of  those  days  were 
among  its  visitors.  Every  work  which  she  published 
deepened  the  hold  she  had  upon  the  reading  public,  es 
pecially  in  Scotland,  for,  as  Sir  Walter  Scott  once  wrote: 
"  Her  writings  derive  their  success  from  the  Scottish 
people ;  they  breathe  a  spirit  at  once  of  patriotism  and  of 
that  candor  which  renders  patriotism  unselfish  and  lib 
eral."  But  their  great  charm  is  that  it  is  always  an  edu 
cated,  refined  woman  who  speaks,  one  who  knows  the 
world  and  is  full  of  shrewd  common  sense  and  of  that 
sympathy  for  others  which  is  inseparable  from  the  high 
est  type  of  womanhood.  In  1825  Mrs.  Grant  was  award 
ed  a  pension  from  the  Crown  of  £100  per  annum,  and 
that,  with  the  income  from  her  books,  made  her  last  years 
free  from  pecuniary  care,  and  the  sunset  of  her  life  had 
no  shadows  except  the  kindly  ones  of  the  gathering 
night.  She  died,  in  1838,  when  in  her  eighty-fourth  year, 
and  her  faculties  remained  unimpaired  to  the  end. 

Mrs.  Grant  will  be  remembered  by  her  prose  writings 
rather  than  by  her  poetry,  though  at  least  one  of  her 
lyrics,  "  O  Where,  Tell  Me  Where,"  has  won  a  place  in 
all  the  collections  of  Scottish  song  and  in  the  popular 
anthologies.  Her  "  Memoirs  of  an  American  Lady  "  has 
run  through  many  editions  here,  and  is  still  reprinted. 
Its  sale  in  America  far  exceeded  that  it  enjoyed  in  Scot 
land,  as  might  naturally  be  expected,  but  from  that  sale 
she  failed  to  realize  a  dollar.  That  may  be  natural  and 
legal,  but  it  is  not  honest. 

Few  men  outside  of  the  fighting  professions  have  had 
to  undergo  more  changes  in  their  lifework  than  did  John 
Burtt.  The  peculiarity  about  his  career  is  that  it  is  sharp- 


380  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

ly  divided  into  two  parts,  the  one  in  the  Old  World  being 
a  constant  scene  of  trouble,  ignominy,  and  despair,  while 
in  the  New  his  path  was  one  of  quiet  usefulness  and  dig- 
nitv.  He  was  born  at  Knockmarlock,  near  Kilmarnock, 
Ayrshire,  in  1790,  and  after  receiving  the  usual  country 
school  education  was  apprenticed  to  a  weaver  in  "  Aulcl 
Killie."  His  few  spare  hours  were  devoted  to  supplying 
the  deficiencies  of  his  scholastic  training,  or,  rather,  to 
carrying  it  beyond  the  point  at  which  the  village  teacher 
was  forced  by  circumstances  to  stop,  and  what  Burtt  ac 
complished  during  these  leisure  hours  in  the  way  of  study 
was  really  wonderful.  When  sixteen  years  of  age  he  was 
"  pressed  "  into  the  navy  while  on  a  visit  to  Greenock, 
and  compelled  to  serve  his  sovereign  at  sea  for  five  years. 
Then  he  managed  to  escape,  and,  making  bis  way  back 
to  Kilmarnock,  he  worked  at  the  loom  for  a  while,  and 
then  taught  school  there  and  afterward  in  Paisley. 

Soon  after  settling  in  Paisley,  Burtt  became  promi 
nent  among  the  local  Radical  leaders,  and  his  position 
among  them  was,  in  time,  so  marked  that  for  his  own 
personal  safety,  to  say  nothing  of  his  welfare,  he  deter 
mined  to  leave  Scotland  and  try  to  win  fortune  in  the 
young  Republic.  He  arrived  in  America  in  1817.  After 
studying  theology  at  Princeton,  he  was  licensed  to 
preach,  and  became  minister  of  a  Presbyterian  church  at 
Salem,  N.  J.  In  1831  he  edited  a  religious  newspaper  at 
Philadelphia,  and  two  years  later  he  moved  to  Cincin- 
'nati,  where  he  continued  his  ministry  and  edited  a  re 
ligious  paper  called  the  "  Standard."  After  a  year  or  twro 
spent  as  professor  in  a  theological  seminary  at  Cincin 
nati,  he  took  pastoral  charge  of  a  church  at  Blackwood- 
towti,  which  he  held  until  1859,  when  he  retired  on  ac 
count  of  his  advancing  years.  He  returned  to  Salem, 
and  resided  in  that  village  till  his  death,  in  1866. 

Burtt  published  two  volumes  of  his  poetry.  The  first 
was  issued  at  Kilmarnock  in  1816,  and  the  second  ap 
peared  at  Bridgeton,  N.  J.,  under  the  title  of  "  Horae 
Poeticae:  Transient  Murmurs  of  a  Solitary  Lyre." 

A  name  now  almost  forgotten,  that  of  John  Beveridge, 
for  many  years  Professor  of  Languages  in  the  College  of 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  381 

Philadelphia,  deserves  remembrance  for  his  own  abilities 
as  a  Latin  scholar  and  poet  as  for  the  indirect  influence 
he  had  upon  the  shaping  of  the  career  of  Robert  Burns. 
He  was  born  in  the  south  of  Scotland,  and  taught  school 
in  Edinburgh  and  other  places.  Among  his  pupils  was 
Thomas  Blacklock,  and  Beveridge  took  a  particular  in 
terest  in  directing  the  blind  lad's  thought  to  poetry, 
thinking  that  the  pleasures  of  fancy  might  atone,  in  some 
degree,  for  his  deprivation  of  sight.  It  was  Beveridge 
who  first  brought  out  and  fixed  in  Blacklock's  mind  the 
poetic  impulse  that  made  him  cling  to  poetry  as  the  sol 
ace  of  his  life,  and  it  was  this  poetic  impulse  that  carried 
Blacklock  to  write  the  letter  commendatory  of  Burns's 
writings  which  turned  the  thoughts  of  that  brilliant  genius 
from  Jamaica  to  Edinburgh.  In  1/52  Beveridge  emi 
grated  to  New  England,  and,  after  drifting  around  for 
several  years,  settled  in  Philadelphia  in  1757  as  a  teacher. 
He  could  hardly  be  called  a  success  in  this  profession, 
for  he  was  a  poor  disciplinarian,  and  his  short  stature, 
shabby  dress,  and  awkward  manners  made  his  pupils  feel 
anything  for  him  but  reverence.  Yet  he  turned  out  some 
excellent  scholars,  and  he  was  always  willing  to  encour 
age  and  applaud  their  efforts,  although  sometimes  his 
good  intentions  in  this  regard  were  thwarted  by  his  own 
unintentional  indiscretions.  Thus,  in  1765,  he  published 
at  Philadelphia  a  volume  of  his  Latin  poems,  with  Eng 
lish  translations  by  his  pupils.  In  the  preface  he  an 
nounced:  'They  [the  translations]  are  done  by  stu 
dents  under  age,  and  if  critics  will  only  bear  with  them 
until  their  understandings  are  mature,  I  apprehend  they 
are  in  a  fair  way  of  doing  better.''  The  pupils  might  be 
proud  to  see  their  efforts  in  print,  but  their  pride  would 
certainly  receive  a  sharp  fall  when  they  read  these  ap 
parently  contemptuous  words. 

Literary  theorists  who  are  fond  of  asserting  that  the 
poetic  spirit,  or,  rather,  the  faculty  of  giving  expression 
to  it,  never  descends  from  a  father  to  his  children  would 
do  well  to  consider  the  history  of  the  humble  Paisley 
family  of  Picken.  The  father,  Ebenezer,  was  a  poet  of 
more  than  ordinary  ability,  and  some  of  his  lyrics  rank 


382  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

among-  the  indispensables  in  every  Scottish  collection. 
His  son,  Andrew  B.  Picken,  inherited  all  his  father's 
genius;  his  muse  even  essayed  higher  flights,  but  its  full 
soaring  was  unquestionably  retarded  by  the  vicissitudes 
of  his  life.  Poverty  undoubtedly  chained  him  to  the 
earth,  while  his  fancy  might  have  been  roaming  through 
the  spheres.  In  1822,  when  in  his  twentieth  year,  he 
was  induced  to  take  an  interest  in  a  silly  expedition  to 
Poyais,  on  the  Mosquito  Coast,  and  his  sufferings  and  ad 
ventures  in  that  unfortunate  episode  formed  afterward 
the  themes  for  a  series  of  vivid  sketches  in  poetry  and 
prose  from  his  pen.  From  that  scene  of  desolation 
Picken  made  his  way  to  the  West  Indies,  and,  after  get 
ting  employment  there  for  some  time,  saved  enough 
money  to  convey  him  back  to  Scotland,  in  1828.  But 
even  there  the  fates  were  against  him,  and  two  years 
later  he  sailed  for  the  United  States.  His  fortunes  did 
not  improve  by  the  change,  and  he  suffered  dire  vicissi 
tudes,  and  tried  his  fortune  in  many  cities.  His  last  field 
of  operations  was  Montreal,  and  there  he  earned  a  fairly 
decent  livelihood  as  a  teacher  of  drawing  until  his  death, 
in  1849.  In  poetry,  Picken's  best  work  is  his  "  Bed 
ouins,"  a  production  running  through  three  cantos,  which 
ought  to  be  better  known  than  it  is  at  the  present  day, 
while  his  "  Plague  Ship  "  shows  that  he  was  a  graceful, 
forceful,  and  interesting  writer  of  prose.  During  the  lat 
ter  part  of  his  life  he  was  a  regular  and  welcome  contrib 
utor  to  Canadian  newspapers  and  magazines. 

Picken's  footsteps  were  directed  to  Montreal  by  the 
fact  that  an  elder  sister  resided  there,  supporting  herself 
by  teaching  music,  and  doubtless  it  was  her  influence 
that  induced  him  to  settle  down  in  that  beautiful  city 
and  give  up  his  weary  wandering's.  Joanna  Belfrage 
Picken  was  born  at  Paisley  in  1798,  and  arrived  in  Mont 
real  in  1842.  She  was  a  writer  of  verses  of  at  least  re 
spectable  merit,  and  was  a  regular  contributor  to  the 
"  Literary  Garland  "  and  other  publications.  Her  writ 
ings  were  never  gathered  together  and  issued  in  book 
form,  although  there  was  some  talk  of  this  being  done 
shortly  after  her  death,  in  1859. 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  383 

One  of  the  strongest  personalities  in  Scottish  literary 
history  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  James  Tytler,  bet 
ter  known  to  readers  of  Scottish  poetry,  probably,  as 
"  Balloon  Tytler."  He  was  born  in  1747  at  Fern, 
Forfarshire,  of  which  parish  his  father  was  minister. 
He  studied  medicine,  made  two  voyages  to  Green 
land,  tried  to  build  up  a  practice  in  Edinburgh, 
and  finally  became  a  literary  hack,  and  in  that 
capacity  compiled,  abridged,  and  wrote  many  books, 
and  prepared  others  for  the  press,  although  he  is  now 
remembered  mainly  as  the  writer  of  a  couple  of  fairly 
good  songs.  He  was  a  most  ingenious  man,  in 
vented  several  mechanical  contrivances,  and  had  invari 
ably  on  hand  some  grand  scheme  by  which  his  own  fort 
unes,  or  those  of  the  world  in  general,  were  to  be  im 
proved.  He  was  also  a  busy  man;  always  devising,  always 
writing,  and  always  in  extreme  poverty.  Sometimes  he 
was  glad  to  seek  refuge  from  his  creditors  by  confining 
himself  within  the  limits  of  the  debtors'  Sanctuary  at 
Holyrood,  although  it  seems  impossible  to  imagine  how 
the  most  optimistic  creditor  could  even  dream  of  ever  re 
covering  money  from  him.  While  in  Edinburgh,  in  the 
Winter  of  1786-7,  Robert  Burns  formed  the  acquaint 
ance  of  Tytler,  and  was  frequently  thrown  into  his  soci 
ety.  In  1792,  when  the  latter  issued  the  prospectus  of 
a  newspaper,  to  be  called  the  "  Political  Gazetteer,"  and 
which  was  intended  to  show  up  the  shortcoming's  and 
denounce  the  repressive  policy  of  the  ruling  powers 
against  the  people,  the  poet  wrote  to  him:  "  Go  on,  Sir; 
lay  bare,  with  undaunted  heart  and  steady  hand,  that  hor 
rid  mass  of  corruption  called  politics  and  statecraft." 

The  prospects  for  the  issue  of  the  "  Political  Gazet 
teer  "^  did  not  pan  out  very  well,  and  that  same  year  Tyt 
ler  tried  to  arouse  the  people  to  a  sense  of  their  wrongs 
by  a  manifesto  addressed  to  them.  The  publication  of 
this  handbill  was  very  obnoxious  to  the  Government. 
Its  language  was  impassioned  and  intemperate,  and  its 
sentiments  were  clearly  seditious,  as  the  laws  of  sedition 
were  then  interpreted.  A  warrant  was  at  once  issued  for 
his  arrest,  but  he  escaped  prison  by  flying  to  Ireland,  and 


384  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

when  his  case  was  called,  in  his  absence,  for  trial  on  Jan 
uary  7,  1793,  he  was  outlawed.  From  Ireland  Tytler 
managed  to  sail  to  America.  We  first  hear  of  him  in 
the  New  World  at  Salem,  Mass.,  where  he  edited  the 
"  Salem  Register."  He  turned  his  medical  skill  to  ac 
count  by  publishing,  in  1/99,  a  "  Treatise  on  the  Plague 
and  Yellow  Fever,"  but  the  newspaper  was  his  main 
stay,  and  he  continued  to  edit  it  until  his  death.  This 
took  place  in  1804,  and  was  the  result  of  an  accident.  He 
was  making  his  way  home  one  dark  night,  and  fell  into 
a  clay  pit,  where  his  body  was  found  the  next  morning. 
Surely  his  was  a  career  strange  and  wayward  enough  to 
form  a  basis  for  a  dozen  romances.  Except  for  his  few 
years  in  America,  life  was,  at  best,  but  a  desolate  road  for 
him,  and  had  he  not  been  buoyed  up  by  strong  senti 
ments  of  hope,  we  can  easily  understand  how  the  gloom 
might  have  caused  his  descent  into  the  most  abject  pov 
erty  and  defiant  sin. 

An  even  sadder  story  is  that  of  John  Lowe,  who  may 
be  called  the  foremost  of  Scotland's  single-poem  poets. 
There  are  doubtless  in  Tytler's  career  many  things  which 
command  our  respect,  for  he  was  so  much  the  victim  of 
circumstances,  so  much  a  product  and  victim  of  the  ill 
government  of  his  times,  that  we  can  pity  his  misfort 
unes  while  we  admire  his  undoubted  genius.  But  in  the 
case  of  John  Lowe  there  is  no  room  for  pity,  and  all  the 
misfortunes  which  came  upon  him  he  richly  deserved. 
He  was  born  at  Kenmure,  in  Galloway,  in  1750.  His 
father  was  a  gardener,  and,  like  most  of  the  Scottish 
peasants,  desired  to  see  his  son  engage  in  the  ministry, 
and  denied  himself  so  that  the  necessary  education  might 
be  provided.  In  due  time  young  Lowe  graduated,  and 
found  his  first  employment  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Mac- 
Ghie  of  Airds  as  a  tutor.  The  family  included  several 
beautiful  daughters,  one  of  whom  captured  the  heart  of 
the  young  tutor,  or  thought  she  did.  He  certainly  cap 
tured  hers.  Another  of  the  young  ladies  was  engaged  to 
be  married  to  a  young  gentleman  named  Miller,  and  it 
was  the  news  that  Miller  had  been  drowned  at  sea  that 
inspired  the  song  which  has  given  Lowe  a  prominent 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  385 

place  in  the  ranks  of  Scotland's  song  writers.  Like  every 
other  heartless  man,  he  could  pour  out  any  amount  of 
sympathy  for  other  people's  sorrows,  but  had  none  to 
spare  for  woes  of  which  he  himself  was  the  cause.  He 
tried  hard  to  get  a  church  in  Scotland,  but  somehow 
failed,  and  despairing  of  obtaining  either  position  or  pre 
ferment  in  his  native  land,  he  resolved  to  seek  them  in 
the  American  Colonies.  With  the  fondest  vows,  and 
professions  of  undying  affection,  he  parted  from  his  love 
at  Airds  and  sailed  for  America  in  1771.  So  far  as  can 
be  seen,  he  forgot  all  about  his  plighted  love  very  soon. 
Settling  at  Fredericksburg,  Va.,  he  tried  to  earn  his  liv 
ing  by  teaching,  but  was  only  moderately  successful. 
Then  he  fell  in  love,  or  professed  to  fall  in  love,  with  a 
Virginian  lady,  but  she  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
him,  and  married  another.  Her  sister,  however,  seemed 
to  have  an  attachment  for  him,  and  he  married  her  out 
of  gratitude.  Meanwhile  he  had  taken  holy  orders  in 
the  Episcopal  Church,  and  was  established  as  rector  of  a 
congregation  at  Fredericksburg,  but  he  did  not  prosper 
in  a  worldly  way.  He  speedily  tired  of  his  wife,  she  dis 
covered  he  was  by  no  means  the  angel  she  had  believed 
him  to  be  before  marriage,  and  her  conduct  was  cer 
tainly  not  conducive  to  his  comfort,  to  say  nothing  of  his 
happiness.  Everything  went  wrong  with  him,  somehow, 
and  to  soothe  his  misery,  like  many  a  fool,  he  took  to 
drink.  Then  the  end  came  rapidly,  and  he  laid  down  the 
burden  of  life  at  Windsor  Lodge,  Va.,  in  1798,  leaving 
behind  him  as  his  most  useful  legacy  only  the  moral  of  a 
shipwrecked  life — a  life  which  would  not  have  been  ship 
wrecked  if  truth  had  only  been  its  rudder.  Lowe  wrote 
several  poems,  but  they  are  all  forgotten  with  the  ex 
ception  of  "  Mary's  Dream,"  yet  that  alone  is  sufficient 
to  give  him  immortality. 

A  pathetic  memory  is  that  of  John  Graham,  once  well 
known  in  New  York  as  the  "  Blind  Scottish  Poet,"  but 
of  whose  career  little  can  now  be  gathered.  Some  of  the 
old  Scotch  residents  of  whom  the  writer  made  inquiries 
in  the  seventies  remembered  him  well,  and  spoke  kindly 
of  him,  but  their  recollection  was  simply  that  of  a  respect- 


386  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

able  old  man,  a  man  of  quick  intelligence,  who  earned  a 
scanty  living  by  selling  books,  especially  those  compiled 
or  written  by  himself.  He  was  blind,  but  made  no  com 
plaint  on  that  score  or  sought  charity  on  account  of  his 
affliction,  and  his  features  were  readily  aroused  into  ex 
pressive  play  from  the  usual  placid  repose  of  total  blind 
ness  by  any  reference  to  Scotland  or  mention  of  anything 
pertaining  to  Scotsmen.  So  far  as  could  be  gathered,  he 
was  a  native  of  Stirlingshire,  and  settled  in  America  in 
early  life.  How  or  when  he  lost  his  eyesight  is  not 
known.  He  resided  in  New  York,  making  a  livelihood 
of  the  poorest  sort,  until  1850,  when  he  migrated  to  the 
vicinity  of  Albany  and  managed  a  small  property  which 
had  been  bequeathed  to  him,  and  there  his  later  years 
were  spent  in  comparative  comfort.  He  died  about  the 
year  1860. 

One  of  Graham's  principal  works  was  published  in 
1833,  and,  under  the  title  of  "  Flowers  of  Melody,"  gave 
a  capital  selection  of  Scottish  songs.  The  notes,  critical, 
biographical,  and  illustrative,  with  which  he  graced  the 
work  stamped  him  as  being  a  man  of  taste,  research,  and 
intellect.  It  is  a  valuable  book,  and  capable  of  ranking 
with  later  and  more  pretentious  publications.  With  an 
other  of  his  works,  however,  we  have  more  to  do.  This 
is  his  "  Scottish  National  Melodies/'  published  in  1841, 
with  music.  Although  his  verses  were  pleasing,  we  can 
not  rank  Graham  very  highly  as  a  poet.  His  rhythm  is 
far  from  perfect,  while  his  imagery  is  commonplace  or 
tame.  But  throughout  the  whole  there  runs  a  deep 
patriotism  which  forces  us  to  admire  the  writer  and  read 
his  productions  with  great  interest. 

Another  intensely  patriotic  poet,  whose  connection 
with  America  was,  however,  exceedingly  brief — he 
crossed  the  Atlantic  only  to  find  a  grave — was  Robert 
Allan  of  Kilbarchan.  He  was  born  in  that  poetically 
famous  Renfrewshire  village  in  1774,  and  was  by  trade 
a  muslin  weaver.  He  commenced  writing  verse  in  early 
life,  and  his  inclinations  in  that  direction  were  much 
encouraged  by  the  friendship  of  Robert  Tannahill  and 
Robert  A.  Smith.  The  latter  not  onlv  inserted  several 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  387 

of  Allan's  songs  in  his  "  Scottish  Minstrel,"  but  set  most 
of  them  to  music.  Allan  also  contributed  several  poems 
to  MotherwelPs  "  Harp  of  Renfrewshire,"  and  a  volume 
of  his  writings  appeared  at  Glasgow  in  1836.  In  his 
edition  of  Tannahill  (which  is  full  of  references  to  Allan) 
the  late  Mr.  David  Semple  wrote :  "  The  reception  the 
volume  met  with  greatly  disappointed  the  author.  He 
supposed  his  merits  as  a  poet  had  been  overlooked,  and, 
brooding  over  the  disappointment,  he  became  irritable  in 
his  temper  and  gloomy  in  appearance.  Some  of  his 
friends  had  emigrated  to  America  and  succeeded,  and  he 
was  determined  to  follow  them.  As  he  was  in  the  sixty- 
seventh  year  of  his  age,  several  of  his  acquaintances 
remonstrated  with  him,  but  without  success,  and  he  sailed 
on  28th  April,  1841,  from  Greenock  for  New  York.  All 
went  well  until  the  ship  reached  the  Banks  of  Newfound 
land,  where  the  vessel  was  detained  eight  days  by  foggy 
weather,  and  the  poet  during  that  time  caught  a  cold. 
He  landed  on  the  1st  and  died  on  the  7th  June,  1841." 

From  the  consideration  of  such  lives  as  Tytler,  Lowe, 
and  Allan,  with  their  inevitable  sadness,  we  turn,  for  the 
sake  of  the  change,  to  the  happy  and  perfectly  rounded 
career  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  Scott,  one  of  the  many 
sacred  singers  whom  Scotland  has  given  to  America. 
Dr.  Scott  was  born  at  Langside,  Glasgow,  in  1806,  stud 
ied  for  the  ministry,  mainly  in  Glasgow,  and  emigrated 
to  America  in  1832.  Two  years  later  he  became  pastor 
of  a  church  at  German  Valley,  and  afterward  had  charge 
of  the  First  Reformed  Dutch  Church  at  Newark,  N.  J., 
where  he  remained  till  his  death,  in  1858.  He  received 
the  degree  of  D.  D.  from  Lafayette  College  in  1844,  and 
in  1,848  published  a  keenly  critical  and  decidedly  able 
dissertation  "  On  the  Genius  of  Robert  Pollok."  The 
labor  of  his  life,  and  latterly  its  greatest  earthly  solace, 
was  his  lengthy  poem  of  "  The  Guardian  Angel,"  which 
saw  the  light  of  print  about  the  time  of  his  death.  "  It 
is,"  says  the  author,  4<  in  the  form  of  a  dream,  a  series  oi 
conversations  concerning  the  invisible  state,  the  existence 
and  ministry  of  holy  angels,  as  well  as  their  guardian 
ship  over  men,  held  by  persons  who  met  accidentally  at 


388  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

different  places,  connected  by  a  slender  thread  of  story/' 
This  is  not  a  promising  theme  for  a  poem;  one  would 
need  the  genius  of  John  Bunyan  to  build  a  popular 
work  on  such  a  foundation,  and  the  poem  as  a  whole  is, 
it  must  be  confessed,  rather  tedious.  But  it  is  full  of 
many  fine  passages,  and  breathes  throughout  a  deep 
religious  feeling — the  phase  of  religious  feeling  which, 
somehow,  possibly  because  it  is  a  true  interpretation, 
inspires  hope  and  peace  in  the  heart  of  the  reader.  Re 
ligious  poetry,  it  must  be  confessed,  except  it  be  brief 
productions  in  the  nature  of  hymns  or  Sabbath  school 
recitations,  or  work  of  surpassing  genius  like  "  Paradise 
Lost,"  seems  to  be  soon  forgotten.  All  between  these 
extremes  appears  to  serve  its  day  and  .generation — the 
generation  that  knew  that  writer — and  then  quietly  to 
pass  into  the  shadows  of  neglect.  There  is  one  peculiar 
ity  of  this  poem,  however,  which  should  in  this  place  be 
pointed  out.  It  is  the  result  of  thoughts  conceived  in 
Edinburgh  and  enlarged  and  extended  at  such  places  in 
America  as  Niagara  Falls  and  the  Mississippi,  and  there 
fore  owes  its  inspiration  directly  to  both  countries — a  true 
Scottish- American  production. 

Beyond  question  the  sweetest  and  best  of  all  the  Scot 
tish-American  lyrists  was  Hew  Ainslie,  who-  died  at 
Louisville,  Ky.,  in  1878.  His  "  Ingleside  v  has  long  been 
a  favorite  in  America,  and  the  lines  beginning  "  It's  dowie 
in  the  hint  o'  hairst"  have  been  popular  among  all 
classes  in  Scotland,  especially  since  they  were  introduced 
so  pathetically  in  Dr.  Norman  Macleod's  beautiful  story 
of  "  Wee  Davie."  Ainslie  was  born  at  Bargeny,  Ayr 
shire,  in  1792,  his  father  being  a  farmer.  After  being  ed 
ucated  at  Ballantrae,  he  was  put  to  work  on  the  Bargeny 
estates  for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  and  when  eighteen 
years  of  age  became  apprenticed  to  a  lawyer  at  Glasgow. 
But  he  had  become  enamored  of  the  life  he  had^  been 
leading  in  the  woods,  and  to  escape  beginning  his  ap 
prenticeship  he  fled  from  his  father's  house  and  took  ref 
uge  with  some  relatives  at  Roslin,  near  Edinburgh. 
There  his  father  soon  followed,  and  took  up  his  own  resi 
dence.  Young  Ainslie's  first  employment  was  that  of  a 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  389 

bookkeeper  in  an  Edinburgh  brewery,  and  then  he  got  a 
position  as  copyist  in  the  General  Register  Office  in 
the  Scottish  capital.  He  also  married  about  that  time, 
and  soon  was  busy  solving  the  oft-attempted  puzzle  in 
human  life  of  supporting  a  wife  and  weans  on  a  small  sal 
ary.  A  short  season  employed  as  amanuensis  to"  Pro 
fessor  Dugald  Stewart  was  a  pleasant  interlude  in  a  life 
which  seemed  to  carry  nothing  but  gloom  in  its  future, 
and  then,  in  1821,  Ainslie  made  up  his  mind  to  emigrate 
to  the  United  States.  Before  doing  so,  he  paid  a  farewell 
visit  to  Ayrshire  in  company  with  two  friends,  and  the 
story  of  the  trip  was  told  in  a  little  volume — his  first — 
entitled  "  A  Pilgrimage  to  the  Land  of  Burns."  It  ap 
peared  in  1822,  and  was  reprinted  in  the  memorial  vol 
ume,  containing  Ainslie's  memoirs  and  a  selection  from 
fiis  writings,  published  at  Paisley  in  1891.  The  work  has 
some  fine  descriptive  prose  passages  and  a  few  good 
songs.  Shortly  after  its  publication  Ainslie  bade  farewell 
to  Scotland,  and  settled  on  a  small  farm  in  Rensselaer 
County,  N.  Y.  A  year  later  he  was  joined  by  his  wife 
and  children.  In  1842  he  moved  to  New  Harmony,  Ind., 
as  he  had  thrown  himself  with  all  his  heart  into  Robert 
Owen's  social  schemes,  and  thought  he  saw  in  the  settle 
ment  at  New  Harmony  the  beginning  of  an  earthly  para 
dise.  The  practical  working  of  the  scheme  did  not,  how 
ever,  come  up  to  his  expectations,  and  after  a  while  he 
removed  to  Shippensport,  Ohio,  where  he  established  a 
small  brewery.  After  brief  residences  in  various  towns, 
he  finally  settled  in  Louisville,  which  became  his  home 
in  1829,  and  was  regarded  as  such  until  the  end.  In 
1852,  however,  he  visited  New  York  at  the  invitation  of 
the  Wellstood  family,  (the  well-known  engravers  already 
referred  to,)  and  continued  with  them  for  over  ten  years. 
In  1862  he  revisited  Scotland,  and  spent  there  two  very 
happy  years  among  scenes  that  had  long  been  but  a  mem 
ory.  He  was  warmly  welcomed  on  every  side,  and  car 
ried  back  with  him  over  the  Atlantic  a  host  of  fresh  rem 
iniscences  and  the  good  wishes  of  many  new  as  well  as 
old  friends,  which  made  Scotland  dearer  to  him  than  ever. 
Soon  after  returning,  he  settled  again  at  Louisville,  and 


390  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

his  declining  years  were  tempered  by  the  devoted  care  of 
his  family,  then  all  grown  up  and  "  weel-daein.'  " 

Ainslie  will  ever  hold  a  place  among  the  poets  of  Scot 
land — not  in  the  foremost  rank,  certainly,  but  along  with 
Beattie,  Wilson,  Motherwell,  Rodger,  and  others  in  the 
second  circle.  He  wrote  much,  and  often  carelessly,  but 
sufficient  came  from  his  pen  to  make  a  volume  of  verse 
excellent  enough  in  quality  to  give  him  a  recognized  po 
sition  as  a  poet  in  any  literature.  He  delighted  in  the 
use  of  the  Doric;  his  years  of  toiling  and  excitement 
and  worrying  in  America  seemed  to  make  it  dearer  to 
him  as  he  advanced  in  life,  and  it  uplifted  his  muse  out 
of  the  levels,  for  everything  which  he  wrote  which  was 
not  "  in  guid  braid  Scots  "  seems  flat  and  tame  and  little 
else  than  rhymed  prose — prose  that  would  have  been 
better  expressed  had  it  not  been  hampered  by  rhyme. 
"  Mr.  Ainslie,"  wrote  Dr.  John  D.  Ross  in  a  memoir  in  hi 
valuable  volume  on  "  Scottish  Poets  in  America,"  "  was 
a  poet  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word.  His  love  for  Scot 
land,  no  doubt,  stimulated  his  muse  to  sing  forth  her 
praises  in  songs  which  will  ever  retain  a  place  in  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen,  but  apart  from  this  he  has  left 
us  numerous  ballads  and  lyrical  pieces  which  we  could 
not  willingly  let  die.  Many  of  these  are  of  a  very  pa 
thetic  nature,  and,  in  addition  to  their  being  very  beauti 
ful,  they  contain  excellent  sentiments  expressed  in  the 
simplest  of  words."  Three  editions  of  his  poems  were 
published  in  this  country  during  his  lifetime,  and  contri 
butions  from  his  pen  appeared  in  "  Whistlebinkie,"  and 
selections  from  his  writings  in  all  modern  collections  of 
Scottish  poetry  or  song. 

William  Wilson,  bookbinder  and  bookseller,  Pough- 
keepsie,  N.  Y.,  is  still  remembered  as  a  pleasing  writer, 
some  of  whose  songs  will  long  keep  his  memory  green 
and  give  him  a  place  in  American  literature.  He  was 
born  at  Crieff  in  1801.  His  father  having  died  in  infancy, 
William  began,  at  the  age  of  seven  years,  the  hard  battle 
of  life  by  being  sent  to  help  in  herding  sheep,  and  when 
fourteen  years  of  age  was  apprenticed  to  a  "  cloth  lap- 
per"  in  Glasgow.  He  afterward  removed  to  Dundee, 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  391 

where  he  varied  the  tedium  of  his  trade  by  contributing 
to  the  local  papers.  Then  he  went  to  Edinburgh,  where 
he  was  enabled  to  start  in  business  as  a  dealer  in  coal. 
In  1833  he  emigrated  to  the  United  States,  and,  a  year 
later,  settled  in  Poughkeepsie,  where  he  conducted  a 
book  business  successfully  until  his  death,  in  1860.  His 
son,  James  Grant  Wilson,  has  done  good  literary  work 
as  editor  of  several  important  publications,  as  well  as  by 
much  original  writing. 

William  Wilson's  poems  have  twice  been  published, 
and  received  very  considerate  treatment  at  the  hands  of 
the  critics.  One  of  them  wrote:  "He  was  a  genuine 
son  of  song,  and  his  genius  is  deserving  of  even  wider 
recognition  than  it  receives  at  present.  Simplicity  and 
kindness  are  his  greatest  characteristics,  and  are  shown  in 
every  line  he  writes.  He  is  earnest  and  direct  in  his 
teaching1,  and  whether  singing  the  praises  of  his  native 
land  or  the  glories  of  the  land  in  which  he  died,  whether 
mourning  beside  the  grave  of  a  loved  one,  or  warbling 
'  Stanzas  to  a  Child/  the  hearty,  whole-souled  character 
of  the  man  shines  clearly  forth." 

A  truly  gentle  life  was  that  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Maxwell 
Martin,  who  died  a  few  years  ago  at  an  advanced  age  at 
Columbia,  S.  C.  She  was  born  at  Dumfries  in  1807,  and 
crossed  the  Atlantic  with  her  parents  in  1815.  They  set 
tled  at  Columbia,  S.  C.,  and  there  Margaret  not  only  re 
ceived  her  education,  but  married  William  Martin  and 
spent  her  many  years  of  useful  life.  For  over  seventeen 
years  she  managed  and  taught  a  female  seminary  at  Co 
lumbia,  and  she  published  many  volumes  of  poetry  and 
prose,  among  which  her  "  Religious  Poems  "  (1858)  and 
"  Scenes  and  Scenery  of  South  Carolina  "  (1869)  must 
hold  a  prominent  place. 

A  man  of  much  promise,  full  of  poetic  spirit  and  rich 
fancy,  but  which,  however,  never  developed  at  all  in 
keeping  with  early  hopes,  was  William  Kennedy,  who  is 
better  known  to  readers  of  Scottish  poetry  as  the  friend 
of  William  Motherwell  than  for  anything  he  contributed 
to  the  minstrelsy  of  his  native  land.  He  was  born  at 
Paisley,  or  near  it,  in  1799;  contributed,  with  Mother- 


392  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

well,  to  the  "  Paisley  Magazine,"  and  published  in  1827 
a  volume  of  poems,  which  was  flatteringly  received.  He 
afterward  removed  to  London  and  entered  upon  the 
career  of  a  man  of  letters.  Although  fairly  successful, 
he  gladly  accepted  an  offer  to  accompany  Lord  Durham, 
Governor  General  of  Canada,  to  his  post  in  the  capacity 
of  private  secretary.  When  Lord  Durham's  term  of  of 
fice  expired  Kennedy  was  appointed  British  Consul  at 
Galveston,  Texas,  and  held  that  office  for  many  years. 
His  observations  at  this  pleasant  post  were  published  in 
two  volumes,  at  London,  in  1841,  under  the  title  of 
"  Rise,  Progress,  and  Prospects  of  the  Republic  of 
Texas."  In  1847  he  left  America,  and,  with  the  aid  of  a 
Government  pension,  took  up  his  residence  near  London. 
He  died  in  1849.  His  best-known  poem  is  one  he  wrote 
after  a  visit  to  the  grave  of  Motherwell,  in  the  Glasgow 
Necropolis,  and  a  set  of  stirring  lines  to  Scotland,  writ 
ten  on  leaving  it.  One  or  two  of  his  songs,  notably  "  The 
Serenade  •"  and  the  "  Camp  Song,"  were  once  very  popu 
lar  in  the  United  States,  and  are  still  favorites  in  Texas. 
It  seems  a  pity  that  the  exacting  jealousy  of  journal 
ism  should  have  kept  David  Gray,  long  editor  of  the 
Buffalo  "  Courier,"  from  devoting  time  to  poetical  com 
position;  otherwise,  there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  he 
migfht  have  obtained  a  foremost  place  among  the  world- 
renowned  poets  of  America.  But  a  man  must  live,  and 
the  thousand  and  one  cares  and  anxieties  of  journalistic 
life  are  not  conducive  to  the  peace  which  permits  the  muse 
to  essay  lofty  flights.  So  what  we  have  to  show  for  the 
poetic  gift  in  Gray  is  mainly  fragmentary  compositions, 
"  verses  of  occasion,"  although  here  and  there  his  soul 
fairly  gave  itself  up  to  the  reign  of  fancy  and,  in  the  case 
of  the  verses  called  "  The  Last  Indian  Council  on  the 
Genesee,"  we  have  something  that  arrests  attention,  that 
carries  us  with  the  spirit  of  the  author  into  realms  beyond 
the  veil,  something  that  is  bound  to  hold  a  place  in  liter 
ature.  Gray  was  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1836,  and  settled 
in  America  when  a  boy.  In  1859  he  secured  a  position  on 
the  Buffalo  "  Courier,"  and  in  1867  became  its  editor  in 
chief.  He  held  that  position  until  1882,  when  his  health 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  393 

compelled  his  retirement.  Afterward  he  acted  as  secre 
tary  to  the  Niagara  Park  Commission,  and  in  that  capac 
ity  did  good  work  in  restoring  that  great  example  of 
nature's  mighty  handiwork  to  a  condition  as  free  from 
evidences  of  the  commercial  instincts  of  mankind  as  pos 
sible.  But  his  health  continued  poor,  and  in  1888,  when 
he  had  just  started  on  a  proposed  journey  to  Cuba  for 
rest,  he  was  killed  in  a  railroad  accident  near  Bingham- 
ton,  N.  Y.  Soon  after  that  sad  accident  two  elegant  vol 
umes,  containing  his  life,  letters,  and  poems,  were  pub 
lished  at  Buffalo,  and  sufficiently  indicate  how  valuable 
was  the  life  thus  summarily  ended.  Gray  was  proud  of 
his  Scotch  birth  and  parentage,  and  took  an  active  inter 
est  in  Scotch  affairs  in  Buffalo.  As  a  journalist,  he  was 
the  equal  of  any  man  of  his  time,  while  in  private  life  his 
home  was  long  one  of  the  literary  centres  of  Buffalo — a 
city  of  which  literature  is  by  no  means  one  of  its  dis 
tinguishing  features. 

At  the  principal  of  the  many  enthusiastic  celebrations, 
in  January,  1859,  of  the  centenary  of  the  birthday  of  Rob 
ert  Burns  in  New  York  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  then  in  the 
very  zenith  of  his  marvelous  power  as  an  orator,  was 
selected  to  deliver  one  of  the  speeches.  There  was  some 
dubiety  in  many  minds  as  to  how  he  would  treat  the  mem 
ory  of  the  bard  as  a  whole,  and  how  he  would  view  some 
of  his  shortcomings.  At  that  juncture  before  the  centenary 
festival  came  off,  the  following-  lines  formed  part  of  a 
poem  which  appeared  in  one  of  the  New  York  papers 
and  created  considerable  discussion: 

"  His  few  sma'  fau'ts  ye  need  na  tell; 
Folk  say  ye're  no  o'er  guid  yoursel; 

But  De'il  may  care: 
Gin  ye're  but  half  as  guid  as  Rab, 

We'll  ask  nae  mair. 

"  A  century  hence,  an'  wha  can  tell 
What  may  befa'  yer  cannie  seP? 

Some  holy  preacher 
May  tak'  the  cudgels  up  for  ane 
Ca'd  Harry  Beecher." 


39-1  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

Mr.  Beecher  did  the  poet  all  the  justice  that  his  fond 
est  admirers  could  desire.  The  history  of  the  poem  did 
not  cease,  however,  with  the  event  which  suggested  it. 
It  appeared  at  irregular  intervals  and  in  a  desultory 
fashion  until  Mr.  Beecher  and  his  old  friend  Theodore 
Tilton  had  their  memorable  struggle  in  the  law  courts. 
Then  some  one  remembered  it.  Several  expressions  in  the 
verses  quoted  were  deemed  peculiarly  applicable,  and  it 
was  felt  that  the  prophecy  of  the  poet  had  been  realized 
within  a  quarter  of  the  century  she  had  allotted  for  the; 
need  to  arise  for  a  defender  of  the  preacher.  So  the  lines 
were  then  reprinted  in  nearly  every  paper  in  the  land 
and  sagely  commented  on.  Very  little  seems  to  be 
known  of  Mrs.  J.  Webb,  the  authoress,  except  that  she 
was  a  resident  of  New  York,  frequently  contributed  to 
the  poets'  corners  of  the  New  York  papers,  and  died  in 
this  city  about  1862.  She  was  a  woman  of  undoubted 
genius,  a  true  poet,  and  every  one  of  her  effusions  we 
have  seen  are  of  more  than  ordinary  merit. 

A  contemporary  of  Mrs.  Webb's  in  New  York  City, 
and  who  was  well  known  not  alone  as  a  writer  of  poems, 
but  as  a  sculptor,  was  George  W.  Coutts,  a  native  of  Ed 
inburgh,  who  settled  in  New  York  about  1856.  He  was 
one  of  the  early  members  of  the  Caledonian  Club,  and 
not  only  took  a  deep  interest  in  its  welfare,  but  executed 
several  exceedingly  lifelike  and  skillfully  modeled  busts 
of  its  prominent  members.  During  the  visit  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  to  America  Coutts  published  a  volume 
of  his  poems,  which  he  dedicated  to  the  Prince,  and  of 
that  transaction  he  was  very  proud.  He  did  not  prosper 
in  America  for  various  reasons,  and  early  in  1870  re 
turned  to  Scotland.  His  death  took  place  at  Colchester, 
Essex,  in  1895. 

Many  years  ago  a  family  of  musicians  used  to  give  en 
tertainments  throughout  the  United  States,  in  Canada, 
and  long  were  general  favorites.  The  Fairbairn  Family 
was  known  all  over  the  continent,  and  clever  they  all 
were — the  father  and  two,  perhaps  three,  daughters.  But 
the  style  of  their  programmes  did  not  vary  much,  and 
the  craving  for  something  new  that  possesses  the  amuse- 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  395 

ment  world — Scottish  as  well  as  other  sorts — drove  them 
to  the  wall.  Their  last  appearances  in  New  York — in  the 
seventies — were  dismal  failures,  although  every  one  ad 
mired  the  cleverness  displayed,  and  soon  after  they  left 
that  city  they  got  stranded  somewhere  in  the  upper  part 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  were  finally  heard  from 
as  living  quietly — from  necessity — on  a  small  farm  they 
had  secured  or  bought  in  Canada.  The  father  of  the 
family,  Angus  Fairbairn,  was  an  undoubted  man  of 
genius,  and  had  he  only  possessed  some  share  of  busi 
ness  tact  ought  to  have  made  a  fortune  by  his  own  tal 
ents  and  those  of  his  family.  But  life  seemed  to  be  for 
him  a  continual  struggle,  a  constant  present  disappoint 
ment,  with  plenty  of  hopes,  however,  in  the  future — only 
they  always  remained  there.  He  was  born  near  Edin 
burgh  in  1829.  While  comparatively  a  young  man  he 
began  his  career  as  a  lecturer  and  vocalist  in  London, 
and  the  success  of  his  efforts  led  to  his  making  a  tour 
through  the  United  Kingdom,  giving  similar  entertain 
ments,  combining  lecture  and  music,  as  Wilson,  the 
"  king  of  Scotch  vocalists,"  and  which  were  afterward  in 
troduced  all  over  the  world  by  David  Kennedy.  In  1868 
Fairbairn  published  in  London  a  volume  of  his  verses 
under  the  title  of  "  Poems  by  Angus  Fairbairn,  the  Scot 
tish  Singer."  Very  soon  afterward  he  removed  to  Can 
ada  and  commenced  the  career  of  public  entertainer 
which  ended  in  the  melancholy  and  unsatisfactory  man 
ner  which  has  been  related.  Poor  Fairbairn  was  worthy 
of  a  better  fate.  He  was  a  warm-hearted  man,  full  of  na 
tional  enthusiasm,  and  possessed  a  rich  vein  of  fancy — a 
vein  that  colored  his  whole  life  and  gave  him  many  glints 
of  sunshine  in  spite  of  the  clouds  that  hovered  around 
him  from  the  dawn  to  the  darkness. 

In  1872  the  Scottish  community  at  Montreal  was  start 
led  by  news  of  the  death  by  accident  of  John  Fraser,  bet 
ter  known  among  them  as  "  Cousin  Sandy  "  the  poet. 
He  had  been  on  a  visit  to  Ottawa,  and  while  enjoying  a 
ramble  among  some  rocks  near  the  Parliament  Buildings 
fell  into  the  river  and  was  drowned.  He  was  a  native  of 
Portsoy,  Banffshire,  where  he  was  born  in  1810.  A  tai- 


396  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

lor  by  trade,  he  early  imbibed  pronounced  political  opin 
ions,  for  the  tailor's  "  board  "  was  then  often  transformed 
into  a  forum,  and  Fraser  became  a  Chartist.  He  also 
began  writing  for  the  press,  and  such  publications  as 
"  Reynolds's  Newspaper,"  4k  The  Northern  Star,"  and 
"  Lloyd's  Weekly "  received  his  contributions  gladly. 
But  somehow  things  went  against  him,  and  he  con 
cluded,  in  1860,  to  settle  in  Canada,  where  his  father 
had  taken  up  his  abode  some  years  previously.  He 
arrived  at  his  father's  home  at  Stanstead,  P.  O.,  only  to 
find  that  his  parent  had  died  a  few  days  before.  He 
started  in  business  as  a  tailor,  and  did  very  well,  but  he 
got  tired  of  life  in  the  country  and  removed  to  Montreal, 
where  he  became  traveling  agent  for  a  bookselling  and 
publishing  concern.  In  that  capacity  his  business  took 
him  all  over  Canada,  and  he  made  friends  everywhere. 
In  1870,  after  being  known  for  many  years  as  a  poet  by 
his  contributions  to  newspaper  and  periodical  literature, 
he  published  a  volume  of  his  poems,  a  slender  volume, 
printed  on  only  one  side  of  each  page  and  entitled  a 
'  Tale  of  the  Sea,"  the  name  of  its  opening  and  lengthiest 
piece.  He  sold  the  volume  as  he  went  along  on  his  jour 
neys,  and  the  edition,  which  met  with  a  very  kindly  re 
ception  at  the  hands  of  the  newspaper  critics,  was  soon 
exhausted.  Fraser  might  have  held  political  office  but 
for  his  known  advanced  Radical  opinions,  and  for  the 
fact  that  in  his  poems  he  mercilessly  ridiculed  whoever 
or  whatever  displeased  him — whatever  he  thought  was 
wrong — in  party  or  individual,  statesman  or  politician. 
He  was  by  no  means  a  great  poet,  and  he  expended  too 
much  of  what  ability  he  had  in  merely  passing  themes, 
though  it  is  easy  to  see  that  his  ability  was  great  enough 
to  have  won  for  him  a  higher  and  more  popular  position 
in  the  ranks  of  Canada's  poets  than  is  now  even  likely  to 
be  accorded  to  him.  His  principal  poem,  the  "  Tale  of 
the  Sea,"  contains  many  stirring — even  beautiful — pas 
sages,  its  story  is  graphically  told,  but  its  theme  hardly  be 
comes  the  dignity  of  poetry.  So,  too,  with  much  of  his 
political  pieces,  their  "  snap  "  and  vitality  have  departed 
with  the  causes  which  inspired  them. 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  397 

There  died  in  Brooklyn  on  May  12,  1894,  a  Scottish 
poet  and  song  writer  who  had  long  enjoyed  considerable 
popularity  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  and  been  awarded 
a  prominent  place  among  the  lyrical  writers  who  have 
given  to  Scotland  the  richest  body  of  song  in  the  world. 
This  was  Thomas  C.  Latto,  one  of  the  original  "  Whistle- 
binkians,"  who  for  many  years  prior  to  his  death  led  a 
life  of  comfortable  leisure  amid  the  companionship  of  his 
books,  and  beguiling  the  days  to  the  end  by  adding  to 
his  own  literary  work.  Latto  was  born  at  Kingsbarns, 
Fifeshire,  where  his  father  was  schoolmaster,  in  1818. 
After  studying  law  for  five  sessions  at  St.  Andrews  he 
went  to  Edinburgh,  where  for  some  time  he  was  em 
ployed  in  the  office  of  the  late  Sheriff  Aytoun.  He  also 
resided  in  Dundee  for  a  time,  and  for  two  years  was  en 
gaged  in  Glasgow  in  a  commission  business.  From  the 
time  he  w7ent  to  Edinburgh  he  became  known  as  a  poet, 
and  his  contributions  were  everywhere  welcomed,  as  was 
a  volume  of  his  collected  pieces  which  he  ventured  upon 
publishing.  His  "  Whistlebinkie "  songs  and  several 
pieces  that  appeared  in  Blackwood's  Magazine  showed 
he  had  caught  the  public  taste,  and  a  bright  literary 
future  in  Scotland  seemed  to  be  within  the  grasp  of  the 
young  writer.  But  fate  ordained  otherwise,  and  in  1854 
he  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  begin  life  anew  under  strange 
conditions.  Settling  in  New-York  City,  he  soon  made 
hosts  of  friends  among  his  countrymen,  and  so  high  was 
their  appreciation  of  his  genius  that  it  was  in  his  interests 
the  company  was  formed  that  started  the  Scottish  Amer 
ican  Journal  in  1857.  Latto  was  editor,  and  the  business 
management  was  intrusted  to  William  Finlay,  another 
Scotsman,  a  newspaper  man  of  much  enterprise,  who 
afterward  died  under  distressing  circumstances  in  Can 
ada.  The  two  men  were  ill  matched,  and  the  paper  soon 
passed  into  other  hands,  and  ultimately  won  a  high  rank 
among  American  weeklies.  Mr.  Latto  finally  moved  to 
Brooklyn,  and  for  a  long  time  was  connected  with  the 
;'  Times  "  of  that  city.  A  volume  of  his  poems  was  is 
sued  in  1892  at  Paisley  under  the  title  of  "  Memorials  of 
Auld  Lang  Syne,"  but  while  it  met  with  a  flattering  re- 


398  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

ception  at  the  hands  of  the  critics,  it  failed  to  command 
public  interest.  It  really  contains  some  of  his  best  work 
and  deserved  a  wider  degree  of  popularity  than  seemed 
to  be  its  fate.  About  the  same  time  Mr.  Latto  issued  a 
substantial  volume  containing  a  memoir  and  selection  of 
poems  of  his  old  friend,  Hew  Ainslie,  and  it  enjoyed  a 
wide  sale. 

In  a  memorial  tribute  to  Latto,  published  soon  after 
the  poet's  death  in  The  Edinburgh  Scotsman  and  other 
papers,  Dr.  John  D.  Ross,  who  probably  knew  more  of 
his  latest  literary  work  and  aspirations  than  any  one  else, 
said:  "  As  a  man  of  letters  his  place  at  present  may  sim 
ply  be  among  the  minor  poets  of  his  country,  but  he  has 
left  poems  in  manuscript  superior  even  to  those  acknowl 
edged  immortal  effusions  of  his  which  have  already  been 
published,  and  these  will  ultimately  procure  for  him  a 
high  position  among  the  prominent  Scottish  poets  of  the 
nineteenth  century."  However  this  may  be,  we  can 
simply  judge  by  the  record  before  us,  and  we  can  only 
say  that  the  memory  of  Latto  and  his  other  works  will  be 
kept  alive  by  his  lyrical  pieces,  rather  than  by  anything 
else  from  his  pen  which  is  now  before  the  world.  Such 
pieces  as  "  When  We  Were  at  the  Schule,"  "  Sly  Widow 
Skinner,"  "  The  Kiss  Ahint  the  Door,"  and  one  or  two 
others  will  always  hold  a  place  in  the  literature  of  his 
country  and  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen. 

The  late  Rev.  Dr.  Robert  L.  Kerr,  for  over  sixteen 
years  a  minister  in  the  Congregational  Church  in  this 
country,  was  the  author  of  at  least  one  volume  of  poems 
and  several  volumes  of  a  devotional  cast.  He  was  born 
in  Kilmarnock,  and  for  a  time  was  minister  of  a  church 
in  Forres.  For  seven  years  he  was  pastor  of  the  Congre 
gational  Church  at  Wakefield,  Kan.,  and  then  accepted  a 
call  to  Tomah,  Wis.,  and  died  in  1895,  shortly  after  en 
tering  on  his  duties  there.  A  volume  of  poems,  mostly 
in  his  native  Doric,  was  found  in  his  desk  ready  for  pub 
lication,  but  it  has  never  appeared.  Dr.  Kerr  was  a  man 
of  superior  ability,  but  never  seemed  to  rise  in  life  in  ac 
cordance  with  his  deserts. 

There  was  a  vein  of  true  poetic  sentiment  in  the  men- 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  399 

tal  equipment  of  Donald  Ramsay  of  Boston,  who  died 
at  Liverpool  while  en  route  to  Scotland,  in  1892.  He 
was  born  at  Glasgow  in  1848,  and  started  the  business 
of  life  by  becoming  a  printer  in  a  valentine-making  es 
tablishment.  When  he  died  he  was  managing  Director 
of  the  Heliotype  Printing  Company  of  Boston.  Leading 
an  active  business  life,  Mr.  Ramsay  found  little  time  to 
devote  to  the  muses,  but  whatever  he  permitted  to  appear 
in  print  testified  to  his  gracefulness  of  diction  and  the  del 
icacy  and  exuberance  of  his  fancy.  He  was  proud  of 
Scotland,  and,  like  so  many  others,  when  the  muse  was 
with  him  his  heart  was  across  the  sea.  It  seems  a  pity 
that  he  did  not  gather  his  poems  into  a  volume  before  his 
untimely  death.  They  are,  most  of  them,  too  good  to  be 
forgotten,  and  that  seems  now  likely  to  be  their  fate,  scat 
tered  as  they  are  through  all  sorts  of  publications. 

In  many  respects  the  most  thoughtful,  the  most  richly 
endowed,  of  all  the  Scottish  American  poets  was  Alex 
ander  McLachlan  of  Amaranth,  Ontario,  who  died  sud 
denly  at  Orangeville  on  March  20,  1896.  Somehow  his 
genius  never  seemed  to  find  the  heights  into  which  most 
people  acquainted  with  the  poet  deemed  it  capable  of 
reaching,  and  though  he  had  a  wide  circle  of  readers,  it 
was  mainly  limited  to  Canada,  and  he  failed  to  win  that 
general  meed  of  approbation  and  popularity  which  has 
been  so  often  accorded  to  men  who  did  not  possess  one 
tithe  of  his  ability.  Circumstances,  seemingly,  were 
against  him;  how  or  why  we  cannot  exactly  determine, 
but  in  reviewing  the  career  of  this  man  we  cannot  help 
from  thinking  that  circumstances,  or,  to  put  it  flatly— 
luck — have  as  much  to  do  with  molding  and  shaping  a 
man's  life  career  as  have  his  own  abilities  and  resplendent 
virtues.  Of  course,  this  is  rank  moral  treason,  according 
to  the  Samuel  Smiles  school  of  biographers,  but  no  man 
who  has  had  much  practical  knowledge  of  the  world  will 
gainsay  its  truth  or  be  unable  to  point  to  more  than  one 
illustration  in  its  support. 

At  all^events,  McLachlan's  life  was  passed  without  the 
recognition  it  deserved,  and  in  a  constant  fight  with  pov 
erty,  until,  in  his  old  age,  the  generosity  of  a  number  of 


400  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

his  benefactors  cleared  his  farm  at  Amaranth  from  mort 
gage  and  debt,  and  so  made  his  closing  years  pass  on  to 
their  fruition  without  the  perpetual  worriment  about 
making  ends  meet,  which  had  for  so  long  before  been 
painfully  in  evidence  in  connection  with  his  literary  and 
business  plans. 

McLachlan  was  born  at  Johnstone,  Renfrewshire,  in 
1820.  Like  most  of  the  bards  of  Renfrewshire,  that 
county  of  poets,  he  was  born  and  reared  in  humble  cir- 
cunxstances,  but  from  his  earliest  years  he  imbibed  that 
sturdy  sense  of  independence  which  is  so  marked  a  feat 
ure  in  the  Scottish  character.  When  young  he  learned 
to  be  a  tailor  and  worked  for  a  time  at  that  trade  in  Glas- 
gow.  He  was  a  studious  young  man,  according  to  his 
opportunities,  and  developed  into  a  stanch  adherent  of 
Chartism.  Glasgow  and  Paisley  at  that  time  were 
strongly  stirred  by  the  political  movement  that  promised 
to  enlarge  citizen  freedom,  (and  did  enlarge  it,  in  spite  of 
Peterloo  massacres,  prisons,  hulks,  and  other  weapons 
of  contentment,)  and  as  a  result  the  flood  of  oratory  on 
such  places  as  Glasgow  Green  and  the  Braes  o'  Gleniffer 
was  something  extraordinary.  Among  others,  young  Mc 
Lachlan  caught  the  art  of  public  speaking,  and  was  al 
ways  listened  to  with  attention  because  his  words  were 
carefully  thought  out,  and  he  was  a  perfect  master  of 
every  question  on  which  he  aired  his  views,  a  compliment 
that  cannot  be  paid  to  many  political  orators. 

In  1820,  seeing  no  chance  for  improving  his  condition 
in  Scotland,  McLachlan  emigrated  to  Canada,  and  soon 
after  his  arrival  settled  on  a  farm.  That  occupation  was 
the  basis  of  his  career  thereafter,  but  he  was  known  a  few 
years  after  settling  there  as  a  lecturer  on  literary  topics, 
and  in  poetry  and  prose  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  the 
periodical  press  of  the  country.  In  1862  he  revisited  Scot 
land  on  a  mission  to  speak  upon  the  advantages  of  Can 
ada  as  a  field  for  immigration,  and  his  lectures  on  that 
theme  were  eagerly  listened  to  all  over  the  country  and 
attracted  general  attention.  His  reception  in  his  native 
country  was  an  exceptionally  flattering  one.  He  was 
welcomed  on  every  side,  received  with  many  marks  of 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  401 

honor,  and  presented  with  quite  a  number  of  valuable 
tokens  of  love  from  admiring  friends. 

In  1855  he  published  his  first  volume  of  poetry,  and  it 
was  followed  by  two  others  at  short  intervals,  while  in 
1875  a  collected  edition  of  his  writings  appeared  in  To 
ronto.  All  these  volumes  were  very  highly  praised  by 
the  press  and  by  critics,  but  not  one  of  them  added  much, 
if  anything,  to  the  poet's  financial  resources.  His  lectur 
ing  expeditions  had  made  him  well  known  all  over  Can 
ada,  and  he  had  friends  in  every  section,  but  for  the  last 
ten  or  twelve  years  of  his  life  he  confined  himself  mainly 
to  the  farm,  beguiling  the  tedium  of  each  long  wintry  sea 
son  by  his  pen.  He  continued  to  woo  the  muse  to  the 
last,  and  age  did  not  seem  to  weaken  his  fancy  or  to  les 
sen  his  love  for  the  beautiful  in  nature.  Latterly  he 
soared  into  realms  of  thought  at  which  most  poets,  even 
the  most  gifted,  enter  with  dread — the  why,  wherefore, 
and  whither  of  life;  its  mystery,  its  recompense;  the  mean 
ing  of  its  signs,  its  promises;  the  present  and  the  future, 
and  if  he  did  not  succeed  in  unraveling  any  of  the  se 
crets,  if  he  did  not  succeed  in  piercing  the  veil  that  sep 
arates  the  seen  from  the  unseen,  he  at  least  gives  us  the 
impression  of  one  whose  whole  soul  was  in  the  quest  of  a 
solution  of  the  mystery  of  life;  that  of  an  intellectual 
pioneer  of  a  giant  mold  piercing  through  the  forest 
and  brushing  aside  all  that  seemed  to  obstruct  his  view  of 
the  land  that  lay  beyond,  dimly  shimmering  as  at  the  end 
of  a  long  and  narrow  vista  among  the  trees. 

In  connection  with  the  singers  we  may  be  pardoned 
here  for  departing  from  a  rule  hitherto  pretty  generally 
observed  so  far  in  this  volume,  and  make  reference  to  a 
few  of  those  who,  in  America,  are  still  weaving  their  lays 
and  adding,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  to  the  poetical  an 
thology  of  the  land  of  their  adoption.  Sons  of  song  are 
seldom,  somehow,  overburdened  with  their  store  of  this 
world's  goods,  and  as  they  are  all  doing  something,  or 
honestly  trying  to  do  something,  to  add  to  the  pleasures 
of  existence,  attempting  it  may  be  to  lift  men  from  the 
contemplation  of  the  mere  things  of  this  life  to  the  sweet 
er  realms  of  fancy,  or  the  still  more  practical  purpose  of 


402  THE     SCOT     IN    AMERICA. 

developing  the  good  that  is  in  them,  calling  into  play,  as 
it  were,  the  exercise  of  their  higher  nature,  it  may  be  not 
out  of  place  to  gratify  some  of  them  at  least  by  a  slight 
reference  here.  In  view  of  this,  some  notice  of  the  "  liv 
ing  choir  "  may  close  his  chapter.  All  those  mentioned, 
and  others  who  might  be  mentioned  if  space  permitted, 
will  be  acknowledged  as  sweet  singers,  even  if  it  be  ad 
mitted  that  they  have  "  missed  the  highest  gift  in  poetry," 
as  a  recent  reviewer  aptly  put  it  in  estimating  the  value 
of  the  poetic  gifts  of  the  late  Bayard  Taylor. 

The  venerable  "  Bard  of  Lochfyneside,"  Evan  Mc- 
Coll,  still  resides  in  Toronto,  enjoying  the  beautiful  sun 
set  of  a  life  that  has  been  passed  in  comparative  quiet, 
and  broken  by  no  ambition  save  recognition  of  his  poetic 
merits,  an  ambition  that  was  fairly  gratified  many  years 
ago.  McColl  was  born  at  the  clachan  of  Kenmore,  Ar 
gyllshire,  in  1808,  and  received  as  liberal  an  education  as 
the  parish  of  Inveraray  afforded.  By  his  twenty-third 
year  he  had  become  famous  throughout  the  Highlands 
for  his  poems  in  the  ancient  language  of  that  region,  his 
mother  tongue,  which  continued  to  be  the  tongue  of  his 
thoughts  throughout  his  career.  His  English  writings, 
beautiful  as  most  of  them  are,  are  but  translations,  after 
all,  from  the  Gaelic  in  which  they  were  conceived  and 
fashioned  and  clothed. 

In  1836  he  published  his  first  volume,  a  collection  of 
his  English  as  well  as  Gaelic  poems,  under  the  title  of 
"  The  Mountain  Minstrel."  It  was  very  heartily  received, 
and  the  author  felt  encouraged  in  1839  to  issue  a  volume, 
"  Clarsach  nam  Beann,"  solely  devoted  to  Gaelic  produc 
tions,  and  it  widened  the  measure  of  his  fame  in  the  north, 
while  his  other  volume  made  him  known  to  readers  un 
acquainted  with  the  language  spoken  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden.  In  1839  he  became  a  clerk  in  the  Customs  Service 
at  Liverpool,  and  ten  years  later  paid  a  visit  to  Canada 
for  the  purpose  of  seeing  his  relatives.  To  his  native  land 
he  never  returned.  He  secured  a  position  in  the  Cus 
toms  Service  at  Kingston,  Ontario,  and  there  he  remained 
until  he  was,  by  dint  of  long  service,  permitted  to  retire 
on  a  small  pension.  He  soon  became  a  prominent  mem- 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  403 

her  of  the  Scottish  colony  at  Kingston,  was  active  in  the 
work  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society,  and  for  many  years 
honored  it  by  acting  as  its  bard,  and  in  that  capacity 
seldom  allowed  a  festival  to  pass  without  hailing  the  oc 
casion  with  a  song.  In  Canada  he  has  several  times  pub 
lished  a  volume  of  his  poetical  compositions,  and  to  the 
newspapers  of  the  Dominion  he  has  been  and  is  a  frequent 
contributor. 

Alexander  H.  Wingfield,  a  resident  of  Hamilton,  On 
tario,  since  1850,  is  the  author  of  at  least  one  poem— 
"  The  Crape  on  the  Door '' — that  will  live  long  after  he 
has  passed  over  to  the  land  where  the  poets  never  cease 
singing.  At  one  time  it  was  thought  that  many  gems 
might  be  added  to  the  poetry  of  the  continent  by  his  pen, 
but  somehow  these  high  hopes  have  not  been  realized. 
Mr.  Wingfield  has  done  some  creditable  work,  and  some 
of  his  lines,  such  as  "  A  Shillin'  or  Twa,"  are  not  only  far 
above  the  average,  but  stamp  him  as  a  true  poet;  yet  he 
seems  to  us  to  have  frittered  away  his  gifts  on  themes 
that  were  unworthy  the  attention  of  any  but  the  most 
commonplace  poetasters.  He  was  born  at  Blantyre,  Lan 
arkshire,  Dr.  Livingstone's  birthplace,  in  1828,  and  was 
early  sent  to  work  in  a  cotton  factory  in  Glasgow.  In 
1847  he  settled  in  the  beautiful  town  of  Auburn,  N.  Y., 
and  three  years  later  removed  to  Hamilton,  where  he  se 
cured  employment  as  a  mechanic  in  the  shops  of  the 
Great  Western  Railway.  In  1877  he  received  an  appoint 
ment  in  the  Canadian  Customs  Department,  and  in  that 
vocation  his  days  are  still  passed. 

For  many  years  E.  N.  Lament,  a  native  of  Argyllshire, 
was  one  of  the  best-known  writers  on  the  New  York 
press,  and  for  a  time  was  one  of  the  editors  of  the  "  Inter 
Ocean"  of  Chicago.  A  graceful,  fluent  writer,  full  of 
humor  and  strange  conceits,  he  had  the  happy  art  of  tell 
ing  a  newspaper  story  with  those  little  indefinable  touches 
of  gracefulness  in  style  and  appositeness  in  thought  which 
is  not  generally  regarded  as  appertaining  to  the  rush  and 
excitement  of  newspaper  work.  As  an  essayist  pure  and 
simple  Mr.  Lament  was  without  an  equal  while  in  har 
ness,  but  he  has  for  some  years  been  living  a  life  of  placid 


404  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

retirement  in  Guernsey,  one  of  the  Channel  islands.  Dur 
ing  his  years  of  newspaper  activity  Mr.  Lament  was  wont 
to  woo  the  muse  as  a  relaxation  from  the  vexations  and 
heartbreaks  incidental  to  such  a  career,  and  many  of  his 
verses  have  been  frequently  reprinted,  often  without  his 
name. 

Mr.  D.  M.  Henderson,  bookseller,  Baltimore,  is  an 
other  writer  who  has  done  much  to  make  beautiful  the 
strains  of  the  Scottish-American  harp.  Born  in  Glas 
gow  in  1851,  Mr.  Henderson  settled  in  Baltimore  in  1873, 
and  found  employment  as  clerk  until  he  was  able  to  enter 
into  business  for  himself.  In  1888  he  published  a  volume 
containing  a  selection  of  his  poetical  writings,  and  was 
gratified  at  the  kindly  treatment  it  received  from  the  crit 
ics,  as  well  as  its  ready  acceptance  by  the  public.  One  of 
the  sweetest  of  the  living  Scottish-American  poets  is  Mr. 
Robert  Whittet,  one  of  the  best-known  citizens  of  Rich 
mond,  Va.,  and  a  gentleman  whose  assistance  has  often 
been  evoked  by  the  writer  of  this  work  in  connection 
with  many  individuals.  Mr.  Whittet  was  born  at  Perth 
in  1829,  and  was  long  engaged  in  business  as  a  printei 
there.  In  1869,  although  his  business  was  fairly  success 
ful,  he  desired  a  change,  and  he  crossed  the  Atlantic. 
Purchasing  some  four  hundred  acres  of  land  near  Will- 
iamsburg,  Va.,  he  essayed  an  agricultural  career,  but 
after  a  time  he  realized  that  "  there  was  nothing  in  it," 
and  he  removed  to  Richmond,  started  again  in  his  old 
trade,  and  now  is  at  the  head  of  one  of  the  best-equipped 
printing  plants  in  the  South.  In  1882  he  published  a 
volume  of  verse  under  the  title  of  "  The  Brighter  Side  01 
Suffering,  and  Other  Poems,"  which  met  with  a  large  sale 
and  stamped  him  as  a  poet  of  no  ordinary  merit. 

Mr.  D.  MacGregor  Crerar,  ex-President  of  the  New 
York  Burns  Society  and  its  Secretary  for  over  twenty- 
five  years,  is  a  writer  of  no  mean  ability,  whose  lines  dis 
play  a  fullness  of  thought,  a  carefulness  of  diction,  and  a 
concentration  of  sentiment  which  are  the  very  essence  of 
poetic  composition.  Beyond  a  poem  on  "  Robert  Burns," 
printed  at  the  request  of  the  Burns  Society,  Mr.  Crerar 
has  published  nothing  in  book  form,  although  often  re- 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  405 

quested  to  do  so,  especially  since  he  appeared  as  one  of 
the  poetic  heroes  in  Mr.  William  Black's  novel  of  "  Stand 
fast,  Craig-Royston."  Possibly  his  strongest  pieces  are 
his  sonnets,  although  in  such  lyrics  as  "  Caledonia's  Blue 
Bells  "  he  touches  the  heart  of  every  reader  who  possesses 
even  a  spark  of  sentiment,  while  his  lines  entitled  "  The 
Eirlic  Well "  and  "  My  Bonnie  Rowan  Tree  "  are  class 
ical  in  their  beauty.  But  whatever  this  author  writes  has 
a  certain  standard'  below  which  he  never  falls,  for  he  be 
lieves  that  the  muse  is  one  of  the  best  gifts  heaven  vouch 
safes  to  men,  and  that  for  the  gift  men  should  in  return 
clothe  its  utterances  with  the  utmost  care.  He  is  a  native 
of  Amulree,  Perthshire. 

Dr.  J.  M.  Harper  of  Quebec,  one  of  the  best-known 
educationalists  in  Canada,  is  also  one  of  that  country's 
poets.  He  was  born  in  Johnstone,  Renfrewshire,  in  1845, 
and  has  been  not  only  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  press, 
but  the  author  of  a  number  of  historical  and  biographical 
works,  while  as  a  lecturer  he  has  won  many  hearty  en 
comiums.  All  his  poems,  whether  Scotch  "  or  other 
wise,"  betray  a  keen  sense  of  the  human  heart,  an  intense 
love  for  nature,  and  a  hearty  appreciation  of  all  that  is 
beautiful  and  true.  He  sings  frequently  of  Scotland  and  on 
Scottish  themes,  but  his  muse  is  mainly  cosmopolitan,  and 
deals  with  humanity  irrespective  of  land  or  clime.  It 
might  be  said  that  he  judges  the  world  through  Scotch 
spectacles,  but  if  that  be  a  fault,  this  work  is  not  likely 
to  admit  it.  There  is  not  a  namby-pamby  line  in  all  Dr. 
Harper's  verses,  nothing  that  is  not  worth  reading  for 
its  thought  and  sentiment,  and  nothing  that  will  not  ele 
vate  the  reader. 

Mr.  James  D.  Crichton  of  Brooklyn,  who  was  born  in 
Edinburgh  in  1847,  is  a  writer  very  similar  in  his  tastes 
and  sympathies  to  Dr.  Harper.  A  man  of  superior  intel 
lect,  widely  read,  and  investing  every  subject  on  which 
he  writes  with  a  peculiar  charm,  the  reading  public  have 
a  right  to  expect  more  from  him  than  has  yet  appeared. 
He  has  not  written  much,  but  what  he  has  written  is  full 
of  melody,  and  confirms  in  us  the  impression  that  in  him 
poetry — song — is  a  natural  gift,  which  the  world  has  a 


406  THE     SCOT     IN     AMFRICA. 

right  to  expect  to  see  utilized  to  its  fullest  extent.  An 
other  Brooklyn  poet  who  has  not  written  as  much  as  he 
should  have  written  is  Andrew  McLean,  editor  of  the 
"  Citizen  "  and  for  many  years  managing  editor  of  "  The 
Brooklyn  Eagle."  He  is  a  native  of  Dumbartonshire,  but 
has  resided  in  America  since  his  fifteenth  year,  and  his 
devotion  to  journalism  has  checked  his  inclination  to  wan 
der  into  other  fields  in  which  he  might  have  made  his 
mark  in  literature.  Mr.  William  M.  Wood  is  also  a 
Scotch  Brooklyn  journalist  whose  abilities  as  a  poet  have 
never  been  fully  cultivated.  As  editor  of  "  The  Brooklyn 
Daily  Times  "  his  days  are  fully  occupied,  but  what  he 
has  written  has  stamped  him  as  undeniably  capable  of  yet 
higher  flights.  Mr.  Wood  is  a  native  of  Edinburgh  and 
started  in  life  as  a  printer. 

Robert  Reid,  ("Rob  Wanlock,")  the  "  laureate  of  the 
Scottish  moors,"  has  resided  in  Montreal  for  several  years 
and  has  \von  an  honorable  position  in  Canadian  as  well 
as  in  Scottish  literature.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Do 
minion  has  influenced  his  muse  to  any  extent.  He  lives 
in  Canada,  but  his  heart  is  in  Scotland,  and  when  his 
muse  is  stirred  it  is  by  a  breeze  wafted  from  the  old  green 
hills  and  dim  gray  muirs  of  his  ain  countree.  Born  in 
the  pleasant  village  of  Wanlockhead,  right  on  the  boun 
dary  between  the  counties  of  Lanark  and  Dumfries,  it  is 
of  the  South  of  Scotland  he  sings,  and  the  scenery  and 
landscapes  of  that  section  give  to  his  lines  their  peculiar 
color,  just  as  Argyllshire  has  colored  the  Scottish  land 
scape  in  the  poems  of  that  older  bard,  Evan  McColl.  Mr. 
Reid  is  one  of  nature's  poets,  that  is  to  say,  he  finds  his 
best  themes  in  the  lilt  of  the  laverock,  the  wild  cry  of 
the  whanp,  the  brown  heather,  and  the  simple  affections 
of  the  heart,  and  to  read  his  lines  is  to  get,  as  it  were,  a 
fresh  and  delightful  glimpse  of  the  land  he  loves  so  well. 

Andrew  Wanless,  bookseller  in  Detroit,  has  published 
several  volumes  of  his  poetry  and  won  a  wide  circle  of 
readers.  He  was  born  at  Longformacus,  Berwickshire, 
in  1825.  In  1851  he  settled  in  Toronto,  where  he  en 
gaged  in  business  as  a  bookbinder,  but  was  burned  out 
and  lost  his  all.  In  1861  he  removed  to  Detroit,  and  slowly 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  407 

but  surely  recovered  his  losses.  He  is  not  only  a  poet, 
but  an  authority  on  poets,  particularly  Scotch,  and  he 
discusses  their  merits  with  rare  critical  acumen  and  with 
a  fund  of  story  and  illustration  which  makes  him  a  de 
lightful  conversationalist.  All  his  own  poems  are  Scotch, 
and  he  handles  "  our  mither  tongue  "  with  the  ease  of  a 
master. 

James  Kennedy,  a  native  of  Forfarshire  and  many 
years  a  resident  of  New  York  City,  has  published  a 
couple  of  volumes  of  verse  and  written  much  that  has  ap 
peared  in  fugitive  form.  His  best  effort,  "  Noran  Water," 
is  a  pure  idyll,  redolent  of  the  Scottish  countryside  and 
evincing  a  wealth  of  imagery  that  delights  the  reader. 
Another  New  York  poet  is  John  Paterson,  a  native  of 
Inverness,  most  of  whose  productions  have  appeared  only 
in  newspapers,  where  they  have  attracted  marked  atten 
tion  and  been  frequently  reprinted,  and  Mr.  H.  Macpher- 
son,  a  younger  bard  hailing  from  the  Highlands,  has 
also  won  recognition  as  a  poet  from  his  efforts  in  Gaelic 
as  well  as  in  English  during  his  residence  in  New  York. 

Mr.  W.  C.  Sturoc,  who  was  born  in  the  auld  toon  of 
Arbroath  in  1822,  has  written  a  large  number  of  verses 
which  speak  plainly  of  the  goodness  of  his  heart,  the  depth 
of  his  affection  for  his  native  land,  and  the  ripe  scholar 
ship  and  Christian  spirit  which  direct  his  daily  thoughts. 
An  estimable  man  in  every  way,  a  loyal  American  citizen, 
and  a  leader  in  the  society  in  which  he  moves,  Mr.  Sturoc 
is  passing  through  the  sunset  of  life  in  his  home  at  Sun- 
apee,  N.  H.,  in  a  way  that  proves  the  truth  of  the  prom 
ised  reward  that  comes  from  a  well-spent  youth  and  man 
hood.  His  poems  are  equally  divided  between  the  old 
land  and  the  new,  and  every  line  he  has  written  shows 
how  equally  dear  both  are  to  him.  John  Imrie  of  To 
ronto  has  published  two  volumes  of  his  poems,  and  sev 
eral  of  his  songs,  set  to  music,  have  become  justly  pop 
ular.  He  has  the  lyrical  genius  strongly  developed,  and 
is  equally  felicitous  in  his  Canadian  and  Scotch  themes. 
William  Murray  of  Hamilton,  Ontario,  a  Breadalbane 
Highlander,  is  a  ready  and  pleasant  writer  of  Scottish 
verse,  mainly  on  historical  themes,  which  have  made 


408  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

his  name  known  far  beyond  the  confines  of  the  town  in 
which  he  has  his  home.  Mr.  William  Anderson  of 
Auburn,  N.  Y.,  a  native  of  Duntocher,  has  written  sev 
eral  stirring1  songs,  one  of  which,  "  Old  Glory,"  has 
become  very  popular.  An  industrious  writer  is  Mr.  J. 
Porteous  Arnold  of  Quebec,  and  so  is  William  Lyle,  too 
industrious  to  give  his  rhyming  qualities  an  opportunity 
to  rise  to  the  heights  they  seem  capable  of  attaining. 

The  Rev.  William  Wye  Smith  of  Newmarket,  Ontario, 
a  native  of  Jedburgh,  has  become  known  on  both  sides 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  as  a  writer  of  hymns,  as  well  as  of 
tuneful  verses.  He  is  also  an  adept  of  the  Doric,  and  prob 
ably  no  man  in  America  has  given  the  language  of  Rob 
ert  Burns  more  patient  or  critical  study.  Mr.  J.  D.  Law 
of  Philadelphia  is  another  writer  who  has  a  firm  grasp  of 
the  Doric  and  can  use  it  with  remarkable  facility.  He  is 
a  poet  of  no  mean  order,  and  soon  after  his  arrival  in  the 
Quaker  City,  in  1886,  became  noted  among"  the  Scots 
resident  there  for  his  rhyming  gifts.  Since  then  he  has 
become  more  widely  known,  for  his  volume  of  poems, 
issued  in  Paisley  a  few  years  ago  under  the  title  of 
"  Dreams  o'  Hame  "  won  golden  opinions  from  the  press 
both  in  Scotland  and  America,  and  the  edition  was  speed 
ily  disposed  of.  Mr.  Law  is  a  native  of  Lumsden,  Aber- 
deenshire. 

As  an  example  of  a  purely  Scottish-American  writer, 
that  is  to  say,  of  a  writer  born  in  America  of  Scottish  an 
cestry,  we  might  mention  Wallace  Bruce,  who  for  sev 
eral  years  was  United  States  Consul  at  Edinburgh,  and 
even  now,  although  his  home  is  again  in  America,  holds 
the  office  of  Poet  Laureate  of  Canongate  Kilwinning 
Lodge,  Edinburgh,  in  succession  to  Robert  Burns,  the 
Ettrick  Shepherd,  and  other  well-known  Scottish  poets. 
Born  in  Columbia  County,  N.  Y.,  Mr.  Bruce  was  edu 
cated  at  Yale  University,  and  afterward  traveled  over 
Scotland,  England,  and  a  goodly  part  of  Europe.  Then, 
on  his  return,  he  ascended  the  lecture  platform  and  grad 
ually  rose  iii.  popularity  until  he  was  regarded  as  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  orators  of  the  lyceums.  Such  themes  as 
"  Robert  Burns,"  "  Walter  Scott,"  and  "  Washington  Iry^ 


AMONG     THE     POETS.  4Q9 

ing  "  showed  that  the  bent  of  his  mind  leaned  toward  the 
land  of  his  ancestry,  and  from  time  to  time  the  poems 
which  appeared  from  his  pen  in  various  periodicals 
proved  that  Scottish  literature  had  been  made  by  him  a 
special  field  of  study.  The  success  which  his  various 
volumes  of  verse — "  Old  Homestead  Poems,"  "  Wayside 
Poems,"  "  In  Clover  and  Heather  "  among  the  number — 
has  met  with  is  satisfactory  assurance  to  his  many  admir 
ers  and  friends  that  his  poetic  merit  is  generally  appre 
ciated. 

This  theme,  however,  might  easily  be  extended  through 
a  number  of  chapters,  but  a  limit  must  be  made,  and  it 
is  as  well  to  close  with  the  gifted  son  of  song  whose 
merits  we  have  just  discussed.  It  seems  hard  to  pass  over 
with  brief  mention  such  undoubted  singers  as  James 
Linen  of  California  and  New  York,  P.  Y.  Smith  of  Wil 
kinson,  Mass.;  William  Murdock  of  St.  John,  N.  B.,  and 
a  score  of  others;  but  perhaps  the  entire  subject  will  some 
day  receive  full  and  fitting  attention  and  treatment. 

What  has  been  written,  however,  imperfect  as  it  is,  is 
sufficient  to  prove  the  theory  with  which  the  chapter 
started — that  the  Scots  in  America  did  not  leave  their 
harps  behind  them  when  they  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and 
that  they  are  as  busy  helping  to  build  up  the  literature  of 
America  as  they  are  in  building  up  all  its  other  interests. 

But  the  Scot  at  home  has  also  had  a  great  deal  to  do 
with  molding  and  shaping  American  literature.  No  poet 
not  a  native  of  the  soil  is  more  studied  or  appreciated 
than  Robert  Burns,  and  nowhere  are  the  lesson  of  his  life 
and  the  significance  of  his  mission  better  understood. 
Hundreds  of  editions  of  his  works  have  been  printed  in 
America,  and  in  such  compilations  as  the  annual  volumes 
of  "  Burnsiana  "  and  the  monograph  on  Highland  Mary, 
and  in  the  tributes  of  such  men  as  Whittier,  Longfellow, 
Emerson,  Holmes,  and  Beecher  the  national  love  and 
reverence  for  the  great  poet  of  the  Scottish  people  has 
found  fitting  expression.  Every  Scotch  poetical  work  of 
eminence  from  the  days  of  Ramsay  has  been  reprinted  in 
the  States,  and  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  MotherwelPs 
collected  writings  and  Pollok's  "  Course  of  Time,"  the 


4:10  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

number  of  American  editions  exceed  those  of  the  old 
land.  Sir  Walter  Scott's  writings  in  prose,  as  in  poetry, 
are  as  thoroughly  familiar  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson 
as  by  the  side  of  the  Clyde,  and,  indeed,  in  reviewing  a 
list  of  American  reprints  of  Scotch  poetical  works  recently 
the  writer  was  almost  forced  to  think  that  the  United 
States  had  simply  adopted  the  modern  poetical  literature 
of  his  native  land  and  quietly  appropriated  it  as  her  own. 
So,  too,  with  Scotch  songs.  "  Auld  Lang  Syne  "  is  as 
much  the  popular  anthem  of  America  as  of  Scotland,  as 
much  adopted  and  naturalized  as  though  it  had  passed 
through  a  dozen  courts  of  record,  and  the  same  might 
be  said  of  several  other  lyrics.  America  as  yet  has  hard 
ly  produced  a  native  minstrelsy,  but  there  is  no  doubt 
that  gradually  some  volkslied  peculiar  to  herself  will  be 
evolved,  and  we  may  be  sure  also  that  it  will  be  more 
after  the  manner  of  the  songs  of  Scotland  than  any  other. 
No  songs  can  charm  even  a  cultivated  American  audi 
ence  like  the  simple  ditties  that  first  awoke  the  echoes  on 
the  north  side  of  the  Tweed,  and  "  Annie  Laurie,"  "  Bon 
ny  Doon,"  "The  Lass  o'  Cowrie,"  "  O'  a'  the  Airts," 
and  "  Robin  Adair  "  are  as  great  favorites  in  America  as 
though  they  were  indigenous  to  the  soil.  Indeed,  the 
only  approach  to  a  native  minstrelsy  in  America  was  that 
introduced  by  the  minstrel  troupes — now  going  out  of 
fashion — and  their  melodies,  on  the  authority  of  George 
Christie,  the  founder  and  greatest  of  all  these  singers, 
were  most  popular  when  they  were  re-echoes  of,  or  rem 
iniscent  of  the  songs  which  were  and  are  the  favorites  of 
the  people  in  the  Land  of  Robert  Burns. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES. 

IT  is  difficult  to  estimate  how  many  Scottish  societies 
of  one  name  or  another  there  are  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada.  They  far  exceed,  considering  the  relative 
population,  those  of  Ireland  or  England,  and  there  is 
hardly  a  place  on  the  continent  where  there  are  half  a 
hundred  Scots  settled  where  they  have  not  organized  a 
society — sometimes  two.  Possibly  the  reason  for  this  is 
a  desire  of  having  an  outlet  for  patriotic  sentiment,  or  a 
wish  to  preserve  the  memories  of  auld  lang  syne,  or  an 
impulse  to  keep  "  shouther  to  shouther "  in  a  strange 
land,  or  possibly  all  three.  The  underlying  reason,  how 
ever,  it  seems  to  us,  is  an  unconscious  survival  of  the  old 
spirit  of  clanship,  which  causes  Highlander  and  Low- 
lander,  Mearnsman  and  Whistler,  Gleskie  chap  and  Pais 
ley  body  to  shake  hands  and  fraternize  when  they  meet 
under  a  foreign  sky  with  a  degree  of  friendship  and  sen 
timent  which  would  never  evolve  from  their  inner  con 
sciousness  were  their  feet  treading  their  native  heath. 
Then,  too,  this  feeling  of  clannishness,  this  making  a  real 
live  thing  of  a  latent  sentiment,  becomes  more  intense, 
more  outspoken,  more  precious,  more  demonstrative,  the 
further  the  Scot  is  removed  from  his  native  soil.  On  the 
Pacific  coast  the  Scottish  gatherings  are  generally  the 
most  thoroughgoing  Scotch  affairs  in  the  world,  and 
everything  must  be  redolent  of  the  heather.  On  the  At 
lantic  seaboard,  especially  around  New  York  City,  where 
Scotland  is  only  a  question  of  a  week's  sail,  they  are  not 
so  demonstrative,  but  even  there  they  are  more  Scotch — 
more  old-fashioned  Scotch — in  their  gatherings  than  are 
the  Scots  at  home.  As  a  rule,  more  wearers  of  the  High- 
411 


412  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

land  costume  used  to  be  seen  at  the  annual  games  of  the 
New  York  Caledonian  Club  than  at  most  similar  gath 
ering's  in  the  Land  o'  Cakes,  and  many  a  Scot  has  con 
fessed  that  he  never  understood  what  the  word  perfer- 
vidiim  meant  when  applied  to  Caledonia  until  after  he 
had  been  a  short  time  in  the  New  World.  In  Scotland, 
St.  Andrew  is  accepted  as  a  figurehead,  possessing  the 
same  amount  of  usefulness  as  the  figurehead  on  an  old 
ship;  but  in  America  he  is  a  very  real  personage,  and 
thousands  of  acts  of  thoughtful  kindness  are  done  year 
out  and  year  in  under  the  inspiration  of  his  name. 

The  Scottish  organizations  in  America  cover  almost 
every  field  in  which  the  Scot  abroad  takes  an  interest- 
charity,  patriotism,  sociability,  and  mental  or  physical 
improvement.  There  are  the  St.  Andrew's  Societies, 
Caledonian  organizations — clubs  or  societies — Order  of 
Scottish  Clans,  Order  of  Sons  of  Scotland,  Burns  clubs, 
curling  clubs,  and  various  others.  When  a  Scot  cannot 
find  any  of  these  to  his  taste,  or  when  he  is  not  numerous 
enough  to  form  some  one  of  them,  he  expends  his  energy 
in  the  kirk — which,  after  all,  according  to  the  Reforma 
tion  dictates,  ought  to  be  a  complete  and  perfect  club  for 
the  requirements  of  any  man.  In  it  the  Scot  can  dis 
pense  charity,  and  when  he  pushes  ahead  the  Presbyte 
rian  standard  his  patriotism  is  flattered  by  a  knowledge 
that  in  his  own  sphere  he  is  carrying  on  the  work  the 
foundation  of  which  was  laid  by  John  Knox  and  Andrew 
Melville,  and  which  was  doubly  consecrated  by  the 
struggle  for  Christ's  Crown  and  Covenant,  which  has 
made  Scotland  one  of  the  world's  landmarks  for  re 
ligious  liberty. 

The  oldest  existing  Scottish  society  in  America  is  the 
Scots'  Charitable  of  Boston,  which  was  founded  in 
1657,  and  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made  in  a 
previous  chapter.  It  is  now  virtually  a  St.  Andrew's  So 
ciety  in  all  but  the  name.  Doubtless  there  were  Scottish 
organizations  in  the  Colonies  before  it,  but,  if  so,  they 
have  passed  away  and  left  no  sign,  and  its  precedence  in 
point  of  age  is  undisputed. 

The  St.  Andrew's  Societies  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  Phila- 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  413 

delphia,  New  York,  and  the  North  British  Society  at 
Halifax,  N.  S.,  are  all  over  a  century  old.  Many  wonder 
what  the  early  members  of  these  organizations  got  to  orate 
about  as  each  anniversary  came  around.  They  indulged 
doubtless  largely  in  such  sentiments  as  "  Charity,"  "  The 
Leal  Heart/'  and  "  Patriotism,"  and  they  toasted  places, 
like — "  lona,  Where  Religion  and  Learning  Found  Ref 
uge  in  the  Middle  Ages,"  but  they  could  not  drink  to  the 
genius  of  Robert  Burns  or  glorify  Walter  Scott.  They 
knew  nothing  about  the  steam  engine,  or  the  Free  Kirk, 
or  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  or  Dr.  Livingstone,  or  Adam 
Smith,  or  Mungo  Park,  or  the  Cardross  case,  or  Car- 
lyle's  ideas  of  heroes  and  hero  worship.  Of  course,  they 
could  talk  about  Bruce  and  Wallace,  the  fight  at  Largs 
and  the  battle  at  Bannockburn,  John  Knox  and  the  Ref 
ormation,  the  Union  of  the  Crowns,  and  a  lot  of  other 
things.  To  us  these  seem  to  be  too  far  back  in  the  mists 
of  history  to  evoke  much  wild  enthusiasm,  but  still  the 
earlier  sons  of  St.  Andrew  were  able  to  make  the  air  re 
echo  with  their  cheers  as  loudly  as  do  their  descendants 
at  the  present  day.  The  Scot  of  1657  and  the  Scot  of  the 
passing  day  were  alike  in  one  respect — and  in  so  much 
are  they  bound  together — in  pledging  with  enthusiasm 
'  The  Day  an'  a'  wha  honour  it."  Our  ancient  as  well  as 
our  modern  orators  on  "  The  Day  "  claimed  that  every 
thing  on  the  earth,  above,  below,  or  under  the  earth 
which  is  at  all  worth  thinking  about,  looking  at,  or  hav 
ing,  was  either  made  by  a  Scotsman  or  that  a  Scotsman 
"  bossed  the  job." 

The  oldest  organization  in  America  bearing  the  name 
of  St.  Andrew  is  the  society  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  which 
was  founded  in  1729.  It  seemed  to  fill  a  want  from  the 
first,  and  its  membership  roll  fully  represented  the  Scotch 
element  in  the  population.  From  a  historical  sketch 
written  by  Judge  King  we  quote  the  following:  "  In  1731 
they  were  joined  by  twenty-eight  new  members,  among 
them  being  his  Excellency  Robert  Johnston,  the  Royal 
Governor,  and  Robert  Wright,  Chief  Justice  of  South 
Carolina.  In  1732  they  elected  eighteen  new  members, 
and  among  them  were  James  Michie,  afterward  Speakei 


414  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  who  died  Chief 
Justice,  and  the  Rev.  Archibald  Stobo,  who,  providen 
tially  saved  from  a  fearful  hurricane,  was  long  the  pastor 
of  the  Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians  worshipping 
together  in  the  same  building,  and  was  probably  the  first 
who  collected  the  Presbyterians  of  Charleston  into  one 
church.  *  *  *  On  the  death  of  Mr.  Skene,  [first 
President  of  the  society  and  a  member  of  the  Legislative 
Council,]  in  1740,  the  Hon.  James  Abercrombie,  believed 
to  be  of  the  house  of  Tulliebody,  was  elected  President. 
The  Hon.  John  Cleland,  a  member  of  the  Legislative 
Council,  succeeded  him,  and  on  his  death,  in  1760,  Dr, 
John  Moultrie  of  Culross,  one  of  the  original  founders  of 
the  society,  the  ancestor  of  the  Moultries  in  South  Caro 
lina,  was  elected  to  the  Presidency.  On  the  death  of  Dr. 
Moultrie,  in  1771,  the  Hon.  John  Stuart,  Superintendent 
of  Indian  Affairs,  was  elected  President.  He  retained  the 
office  until  the  War  of  the  Revolution  interrupted  the 
regular  meetings  of  the  society.  He  had  been  an  officer 
in  the  army  and  had  distinguished  himself  by  his  conduct 
at  Fort  Loudon,  in  the  war  with  the  Cherokees,  in  1760. 
*  *  *  His  son,  Sir  John  Stuart,  a  native  of  Charles 
ton,  inherited  the  talents  of  his  father,  and  at  the  battle  of 
Maida,  in  1806,  showed  what  the  inexperienced  and  raw 
troops  of  his  father's  country  can  achieve  over  veteran 
soldiers."  After  the  war  was  over,  the  society  began  its 
active  work  again.  One  of  its  first  enterprises  was  to 
establish  a  public  school,  which  continued  in  active  oper 
ation  through  its  aid  until  the  State  put  its  educational 
system  in  operation  in  1811.  In  that  same  year  it  was 
resolved  to  build  a  St.  Andrew's  Hall,  and  in  1815  the 
edifice  was  inaugurated.  It  proved  to  be  one  of  the  pop 
ular  gathering  places  in  the  city,  and  in  1825  it  was  the 
headquarters  of  Lafayette  when  in  Charleston.  Bit  by 
bit  the  hall  was  adorned  with  pictures  and  engravings  of 
general  interest,  besides  portraits  of  prominent  members 
and  it  had  many  treasured  articles,  such  as  a  snuff  mull 
mounted  in  silver  and  covered  with  cairngorms;  a  mag 
nificent  ram's  head,  with  generous  horns,  and  a  presiding 
officer's  mallet  made  out  of  a  bit  of  Wallace's  oak  at  Tor- 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  415 

wood,  with  a  handle  from  a  piece  of  the  cedar  that  first 
shaded  the  tomb  of  Washington.  Except  for  the  usual 
work  of  distributing  charity  and  the  holding  of  the  yearly 
festivals,  the  society  continued  to  flourish  without  much 
incident  to  record  until  Dec.  n,  1861,  when  its  hall  was 
totally  destroyed  by  fire.  The  paintings,  ram's  head, 
snuff  mull,  mallet,  and  records  were  saved.  The  paint 
ings  were  afterward  sent  in  haste,  when  the  civil  war 
broke  out,  to  Columbus,  Ga.,  for  safe  keeping,  but  were 
lost  when  Sherman's  .troops  sacked  that  city  in  February, 
1865.  The  other  articles,  however,  were  preserved  dur 
ing  that  trying  time,  and  are  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
society. 

Some  years  ago  an  effort  was  made  to  write  the  biog 
raphies  of  the  most  noted  of  the  early  members  of  this  so 
ciety,  but  after  a  while  the  attempt  was  abandoned.  This 
is  to  be  regretted,  for  such  a  compilation  would  give  a 
vast  amount  of  information  about  many  of  the  early  Scots 
who  held  high  places  in  the  service  of  the  Colonies.  It 
would  also  introduce  us  to  some  very  curious  characters, 
a  knowledge  of  whose  careers  is  worth  preserving.  In 
the  list  of  names  of  those  who  organized  the  society  we 
find,  for  instance,  that  of  Sir  Alexander  Cuming,  one  of 
the  most  curiously  compounded  mortals  who  ever  lived. 
He  was  the  head  of  the  family  of  Cuming,  or  Comyn,  of 
Culter,  and  descended  from  the  old  Earls  of  Buchan.  He 
was  born  in  1700,  at  Culter,  and  studied  the  legal  profes 
sion,  but  for  some  reason  got  a  pension  of  £300  a  year 
from  the  Government,  and  gave  up  all  idea  of  advance 
ment  at  the  bar,  or  even  of  continuing  practice.  The  pen 
sion,  however,  was  withdrawn  in  1721.  He  married  an 
English  lady  who  was  as  flighty  as  himself,  and  it  was  in 
consequence  of  a  dream  of  hers  that  he  determined  to 
proceed  to  America  and  cultivate  the  acquaintance  of  the 
Cherokee  Indians.  He  reached  Charleston  in  1729,  the 
year  the  society  was  formed,  and  lost  no  time  in  making 
himself  kno\vn  to  the  Indians.  In  the  following  year  he 
was  crowned  King  and  chief  ruler  of  the  Cherokees. 
Soon  after,  with  six  of  his  tributary  chiefs,  he  sailed  for 
England,  and  on  June  18,  1730,  had  an  audience  with 


416  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

King  George  II.,  presented  his  chiefs,  and  laid  his  crown 
at  the  Kings  feet,  making  his  followers  also  kneel  in 
homage.  Sir  Alexander,  even  at  the  time  of  his  visit, 
found  considerable  dissatisfaction  existing  in  the  Colo 
nies  against  the  mother  country,  and  proposed  as  a 
means  of  securing  their  perpetual  dependence  a  series  of 
banks  in  each  of  the  provinces,  these  banks  to  have  a 
monopoly  of  business  in  their  respective  territory,  and  in 
turn  to  be  entirely  dependent  upon  the  British  Treasury 
and  accountable  only  to  the  British  Parliament.  The 
British  Government  would  not  listen  to  his  scheme, 
though  it  must  be  confessed  that  there  was  some  solid 
sense  in  it,  for,  if  the  entire  finances  of  a  country  could  be 
throttled,  as  he  proposed,  there  would  not  be  much 
chance  for  a  successful  revolution.  But  in  brooding  upon 
the  project  Sir  Alexander  went  over  the  narrow  line 
which  some  assert  is  all  that  separates  genius  or  wisdom 
from  madness.  He  was  a  zealous  student  of  the  Script 
ures,  and,  in  the  course  of  his  reading,  conceived  the 
notion  that  he  was  alluded  to  in  several  passages  as  the 
appointed  deliverer  of  the  Jews.  Then  he  opened  a  sub 
scription  with  a  gift  of  £ 500  from  himself  for  the  purpose 
of  starting  his  scheme  of  American  banks  and  for  settling 
300,000  Jewish  families  among  the  Cherokees.  Probably 
he  did  not  bother  himself  as  to  how  the  Cherokees  liked 
the  proposal  or  whether  the  Hebrews  would  care  to  fra 
ternize  with  the  Indians,  for  that  was  too  commonplace  a 
detail  for  his  thoughts.  The  subscription  failed  ignomin- 
iously,  and  in  disgust  Sir  Alexander  turned  his  thoughts 
and  energy  to  the  study  of  alchemy.  This  frittered  away 
what  was  left  of  his  means,  and  he  not  only  became  deep 
ly  involved  in  debt,  but  for  some  time  had  to  subsist  on 
the  charity  of  his  friends.  Finally  he  was  admitted  a  pen 
sioner  in  the  Charterhouse,  London,  where  he  died  in 

1775- 

The  St.  Andrew's  Society  of  Philadelphia  was  organ 
ized  in  December,  1749,  by  twenty-five  Scottish  residents 
of  the  "  Quaker  City."  For  some  reason  or  another, 
these  patriotic  and  kindly  men  were  afraid  lest  the  pur 
poses  of  their  association  would  be  misunderstood  by 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  417 

their  fellow-citizens,  and  to  guard  against  this  they  issued 
a  long  "  advertisement  "  setting  forth  the  objects  their 
society  had  in  view.  It  read,  in  part,  as  follows:  "The 
peculiar  benevolence  of  mind  which  shews  itself  by  chari 
table  actions  in  giving  relief  to  the  poor  and  distressed 
has  always  been  justly  esteemed  one  of  the  first-rate 
moral  virtues.  Any  persons,  then,  who  form  themselves 
into  a  society  with  this  intention  must  certainly  meet 
with  the  approbation  of  every  candid  and  generous  mind, 
and  we  hope  that  it  will  plainly  appear  by  the  rules  which 
are  to  follow  that  the  St.  Andrew's  Society  of  Philadel 
phia  was  solely  instituted  with  that  view." 

Having  thus  defined  their  position,  these  philosophic 
Scots  compiled  their  by-laws  and  commenced  their  work. 
The  first  application  for  relief  came  from  an  unfortunate 
countryman  named  Alexander  Ross.  According  to  his 
story,  he  was  a  native  of  Galloway  and  a  surgeon  by  pro 
fession.  He  had  been  captured  by  the  French  and  Span 
iards  five  or  six  times,  and  escaped  to  America  from  some 
Spanish  prison.  His  American  reception  was  not  the 
most  hospitable,  as  it  seems,  when  he  made  application 
for  relief,  he  was  confined  as  a  debtor  in  the  Philadelphia 
prison.  His  prayer  was  attended  to,  and  405,  were  award 
ed  him.  In  1750  the  society  paid  £5  95.  for  a  "  strong 
box  "  to  hold  books,  money,  and  other  possessions.  The 
box  is  still  in  existence,  and  is  a  good,  substantial,  serv 
iceable  article.  It  is  deposited  in  the  Fidelity  Trust  Com 
pany's  vaults  with  the  old  records  of  the  society.  In  the 
same  year  a  curious  case  came  up  for  consideration  which 
may  be  related  here,  as  it  illustrates  the  glorious  uncer 
tainty  of  the  law  which  prevailed  in  those  good  old  times 
just  as  much  as  it  does  in  the  present  day. 

In  1732  Janet  Cleland  was  induced  to  leave  Scotland 
and  take  up  her  residence  with  her  uncle,  John  Gibbs  of 
Maryland.  That  individual  had  pressed  her  to  cross  the 
Atlantic,  and  promised  to  make  her  his  heiress,  besides 
agreeing  to  support  her  in  good  style  during  his  lifetime. 
Relying  on  these  promises,  Janet,  before  she  left,  like  a 
good,  kind-hearted  girl,  made  over  to  another  uncle,  a 
brother  of  the  one  in  Maryland,  a  small  patrimony  which 


418  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

she  had  in  her  native  land.  After  her  arrival  here  Janet 
continued  to  reside  with  her  uncle,  and  acted  as  his  house 
keeper  until  he  died.  The  old  gentleman  appears  to  have 
been  a  peculiar  sort  of  character,  one  of  those  personages 
who,  for  want  of  a  more  fitting  name,  would  nowadays  be 
styled  a  "  crank."  He  had  a  terrible  temper,  and  some 
times  it  so  far  overcame  him  that  his  niece  had  to  leave 
his  house  for  a  few  days  until  its  violence  subsided.  Then, 
when  it  had  cooled  off,  she  used  to  return,  to  his  great 
delight,  for  he  invariably  expressed  his  regret  at  the  cruel 
treatment  and  harsh  words  which  had  compelled  her  to 
seek  refuge  away  from  his  home.  To  most  of  his  friends 
and  close  acquaintances  he  often  acknowledged  his  in 
tention  of  leaving  Janet  all  his  possessions,  and  at  one 
time,  in  presence  of  his  attending  physician,  he  made  a 
formal  will  in  which  he  bequeathed  everything  to  her. 
Finally,  in  1747,  he  died  of  an  ulcer  in  his  head,  which, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  the  medical  man  who  at 
tended  him,  deprived  him  of  his  reason  for  quite  a  while 
before  the  end.  While  in  this  condition  the  negro  slaves, 
in  the  absence  of  the  doctor  and  nurse,  used  to  give  him 
large  quantities  of  rum.  By  some  means  or  other  they 
prevailed  upon  him  to  sign  another  will.  In  it  he  cut 
Janet  and  all  his  relatives  off  without  a  cent,  made  his 
negroes  free,  and  divided  his  property  among  them,  with 
the  exception  of  his  plate,  which  went  to  comparative 
strangers,  along  with  a  few  other  legacies.  Thus  Janet 
was  left  penniless,  and  applied  at  length  to  the  society  for 
assistance.  The  last-made  will  appears  to  have  been  of 
fered  for  probate,  and  she  began  a  lawsuit  to  have  it  set 
aside.  The  society,  considering  her  sad  case,  gave  her  a 
donation  of  £7,  and  recommended  the  members  to  give 
her  all  the  assistance  they  could.  It  appears,  however, 
that  Janet  lost  her  suit,  and  the  last  will  made  by  her 
uncle  was  allowed  to  stand. 

During  the  Revolutionary  period  the  society  probably 
did  little  more  than  maintain  its  existence,  owing,  as  was 
reported  on  one  occasion,  to  "  a  number  of  members  be 
ing  out  of  town,  or  more  particularly  on  account  of  the 
convulsed  and  unsettled  state  of  the  times."  The  minute 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  419 

book  covering  the  interesting  period  between  1776  and 
1786  has  been  lost,  if  it  ever  was  in  existence,  which  may 
be  regarded  as  doubtful.  The  subsequent  history  of  the 
society  is  a  prosperous  one,  and  may  be  summarized  in 
the  old  words  "  daein'  guid  an'  gatherin'  gear."  On  its 
long  roll  of  members  we  find  the  names  of  two  of  the 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence — James  Wil 
son  and  Dr.  John  Witherspoon,  President  of  Princeton 
College.  The  members  took  an  active  part  in  the  erec 
tion  of  the  monument  to  this  great  clerical  statesman 
which  now  graces  Fairmount  Park.  The  roll  also  con 
tains  the  names  of  two  Governors  of  the  State — Hon. 
James  Hamilton  (President  of  the  society  for  several 
terms)  and  Hon.  Thomas  McKean — and  three  Mayors 
of  the  city,  Peter  McCall,  Morton  McMichael,  and  Will 
iam  B.  Smith.  The  roll  is  also  graced  with  the  names  of 
several  of  the  Revolutionary  heroes,  chief  of  which  is  that 
of  Gen.  Hugh  Mercer,  referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter. 
The  remains  of  this  brave  soldier  were  interred  in  Laurel 
Hill  Cemetery,  Philadelphia,  and  there  a  fine  monument 
has  since  been  erected  to  his  memory.  The  society  took 
the  most  active  part  in  carrying  on  the  movement  for  this 
memorial,  and  when  it  was  dedicated  it  occupied  a  place 
of  honor  during  the  ceremonies. 

The  St.  Andrew's  Society  of  the  State  of  New  York 
was  founded  in  1756.  The  intention  of  the  promoters  was 
simply  to  form  a  charitable  organization,  and  that  feature 
has  really  continued  to  be  the  prevailing  one  ever  since. 
These  kindly  Scots,  however,  did  not  forget  that  under 
St.  Andrew's  banner  patriotism,  as  well  as  charity,  could 
work  together,  and  their  constitution  provided  that  a  din 
ner  should  take  place  on  the  3Oth  of  November  in  each 
year.  Since  then  these  meetings  have  been  held  regu 
larly,  except  during  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 

Among  the  members  enrolled  in  1757  we  find  the  name 
of  Col.  Simon  Fraser,  eldest  son  of  Lord  Lovat,  who  was 
beheaded  on  Tower  Hill,  London,  in  1747.  When  the 
Rebellion  of  1745  broke  out  he  was  a  student  at  the  Uni 
versity  of  St.  Andrews,  but  was  withdrawn  by  his  cun 
ning  old  father  to  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the  clan.  He 


420  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

surrendered  himself  to  the  Government  in  1746;  but,  as 
he  had  never  shown  any  sympathy  for  the  cause  of  the 
Stuarts,  and  was  known  to  have  been  influenced  solely  by 
affection  for  his  father,  he  was  released  in  the  course  of 
the  following  year.  Refusing  military  rank  in  the  French 
service,  he  raised,  in  1/57,  two  battalions  of  1,800  men,  in 
command  of  which  he  proceeded  to  New  York,  and  on 
his  arrival  he  joined  the  St.  Andrew's  Society.  He  served 
with  great  distinction  at  Louisburg  and  Quebec,  and  aft 
erward  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  In  1774  the  family 
estates  were  restored  to  him,  but  the  attainder  was  not 
removed  until  1854,  when  the  old  title  of  Lord  Lovat  was 
again  placed  on  the  roll  of  the  Scottish  peerage. 

The  titular  Earl  of  Stirling,  one  of  the  Revolutionary 
heroes,  filled  the  office  of  President  from  1761  till  1763. 
John,  fourth  Earl  of  Dunmore,  Governor  of  New  York 
in  1769,  was  elected  President  in  1770.  His  term  of  office 
was,  however,  very  short,  for  in  the  same  year  he  pro 
ceeded  to  assume  the  government  of  Virginia.  In  1773 
he  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Drummond,  son  of  the  claim 
ant  to  the  attainted  earldom  of  Perth,  who  came  to  this 
country  as  an  officer  in  the  army.  A  few  years  later  he 
was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Americans,  but  was  released 
by  Washington,  and  permitted  to  return  to  New  York. 
His  failing  health  obliged  him  to  proceed  to  Bermuda, 
where  he  died,  unmarried,  in  1781. 

Besides  these  titled  personages,  the  society  has  had 
many  members  to  whom  it  can  point  with  pride.  Some 
of  them,  such  as  the  Coldens,  Hamiltons,  and  Living 
stons,  have  left  their  mark  upon  the  early  history  of  the 
country,  and  in  the  long  roll  of  membership  may  be  found 
the  names  of  the  most  prominent  Scottish  merchants  and 
professional  men  who  have  resided  in  this  city  from  the 
inception  of  the  society  until  the  present  time. 

Whatever  funds  the  society  had  prior  to  the  Revolu 
tionary  War  were  dissipated  by  it.  With  the  return  of 
peace,  however,  it  again  exerted  itself,  and  renewed  its 
career  of  usefulness.  Between  the  years  1787  and  1791  it 
had  bank  stocks  worth  $4,000,  which  were  sold  in  the 
last-named  year.  A  site  was  then  purchased  where  10 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  421 

and  12  Broad  Street  and  8  and  10  New  Street  now  stand, 
for  the  erection  of  a  St.  Andrew's  hall.  The  price  paid 
for  the  ground  was  $4,600.  But  the  building  scheme  was 
dropped  for  some  reason  or  other,  and  the  property  was 
sold  in  1794  for  $6,750.  In  1803  the  funds  of  the  Dum 
fries  and  Galloway  Society,  then  being  wound  up, 
amounting  to  about  $2,300,  were  transferred  to  it.  The 
financial  standing  of  the  society  has  since*  continued 
steadily  to  advance,  and  at  the  present  time  its  perma 
nent  fund  amounts  to  about  $80,000.  Besides,  it  owns 
three  beds  in  hospitals  and  a  plot  in  Cypress  Hills  Ceme 
tery. 

Very  few  persons,  even  after  perusing  the  numerous 
details  furnished  in  the  reports  of  the  society's  operations 
issued  every  year,  can  form  anything  like  a  just  apprecia 
tion  of  the  nature,  extent,  and  importance  of  the  charita 
ble  work  performed  by  the  officers.  The  number  of  per 
sons  who  have  fallen  into  destitute  circumstances,  through 
no  fault  of  their  own,  in  a  large  city  like  New  York,  must 
necessarily  be  always  very  great.  They  include  the 
aged,  the  blind,  the  sick,  the  widow,  and  the  orphan.  So 
numerous,  indeed,  are  such  cases  that  even  with  the  re 
sources  at  their  command  the  officers  are  unable  to  be  as 
generous  as  they  would  wish.  Still,  the  aid  they  give  is 
always  timely  and  welcome,  and  helps  wonderfully  in 
throwing  a  gleam  of  kindly  light  upon  darkened  lives. 
By  means  of  the  beds  at  their  disposal  in  the  Presbyterian 
and  St.  Luke's  Hospitals  the  officers  are  able  to  secure 
proper  treatment  and  the  best  of  medical  attendance  for 
many  of  the  sick.  The  burial  plot  belonging  to  the  so 
ciety  in  Cypress  Hills  Cemetery,  with  its  exceedingly 
beautiful  and  substantial  shaft,  the  gift  of  Mr.  John  S. 
Kennedy,  one  of  the  ex-Presidents  of  the  society,  tells  its 
own  sad  story,  and  shows  how  the  thoughtful  kindness  of 
the  society,  besides  ministering  to  the  wants  of  destitute 
Scots  in  life,  tries  to  gratify  the  last  wish  of  every  one  by 
giving  his  remains  a  respectable  interment. 

There  is  another  class  to  whom  the  assistance  of  the 
society  is  rendered,  and  whose  cases  are  often  pitiable. 
This  is  the  immigrants,  or  transients,  as  they  may  more 


422  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

properly  be  called.  The  old  story  is  well  known  of  peo 
ple  crossing1  the  Atlantic  in  search  of  work,  finding  none, 
and  landing  penniless  in  the  streets.  The  cases  are  also 
common  of  people  who  leave  places  in  the  interior  and 
come  to  New  York  with  the  idea  that  employment  can 
be  had  here  for  the  asking;  and  there  are  hundreds  of 
other  causes  which  somehow  end  in  making  able-bodied 
men  become  idle  wanderers  in  the  great  city.  A  mo 
ment's  reflection  will  tell  us  what  this  means — it  is  pov 
erty,  hunger,  despair,  and  degradation.  The  society  tries 
to  help  these  cases  by  providing  temporary  shelter,  by 
furnishing  the  means  for  cleanliness,  and  in  many  other 
ways. 

Like  the  societies  at  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  the 
North  British  Society  of  Halifax,  N.  S.,  started,  in  1768, 
with  a  strong  box,  and  determined  to  fill  the  box  with 
money  as  soon  as  possible  and  keep  it  filled,  so  that  it 
might  help  along  those  among  them  who  fell  into  pov 
erty  or  who  arrived  in  their  midst  in  a  state  that  needed  a 
little  assistance.  The  members  also  resolved  to  celebrate 
St.  Andrew's  Day,  and  the  quarterly  meetings  were  St. 
Andrew's  festivals  in  miniature,  for  they  appear  to  have 
at  them  mingled  pleasure,  charity,  and  patriotism  in  a 
marked  degree.  The  society  also  had  another  purpose — 
that  of  seeing  to  it  that  each  member  should  have  what 
the  survivors  deemed  a  respectable  funeral.  For  this 
purpose,  one  of  the  articles  in  the  first  constitution  reads 
as  follows: 

"  That  in  case  of  the  death  of  any  member,  the  charge 
of  the  coffin,  pall,  grave,  and  attendance  shall  be  taken 
out  of  the  Box.  Six  scarves,  six  hat  bands,  six  pair  of 
black  gloves,  and  six  pair  white  gloves  shall  be  purchased 
out  of  the  Box  as  soon  as  circumstances  will  allow,  and 
likewise  as  much  as  can  be  afforded  to  be  given  to  the 
widow  and  children  of  the  deceased  member  for  their  as 
sistance,  the  scarves  and  gloves  to  be  returned  to  the 
Box."  The  record  of  the  society  since  its  foundation  has 
been  one  continued  story  of  charity,  varied  by  St.  An 
drew's  dinners  of  all  sorts,  from  the  semi-public  festival  at 
"  the  house  of  Widow  Gillespie  "  to  the  grand  occasion 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  423 

when,  in  1794,  they  reveled  in  splendor  because  their 
principal  guest  was  no  less  a  personage  than  the  Duke  of 
Kent,  the  father  of  Queen  Victoria.  It  has  also  cele 
brated  the  centennials  of  Burns  and  Scott,  and  came  to 
the  front  on  all  occasions  when  a  Scottish  society  could 
exemplify  its  patriotic  and  charitable  spirit.  Its  long  roll 
of  officials  includes  the  names  of  the  most  noted  Scots  in 
Halifax,  and  its  history  all  through  is  one  of  which  not 
only  new  Scotia,  but  auld  Scotia,  may  justly  be  proud. 
Its  charity  has  been  liberal,  yet  thoughtful.  One  notable 
gift  deserves  to  be  noticed.  In  1868,  when  celebrating  in 

g*and  style  its  own  centenary,  it  founded  a  scholarship  in 
alhousie  College.  The  only  other  instance  of  a  like 
benefaction  on  the  part  of  a  Scottish  society  in  America 
of  which  we  are  aware  is  the  St.  Andrew's  Scholarship, 
given  by  the  society  of  that  name  at  Fredericton  to  the 
University  of  New  Brunswick. 

The  St.  Andrew's  Society  of  Montreal  was  established 
in  1835.  It  is  one  of  the  most  active  societies  of  its  name 
in  Canada,  and  yearly  accomplishes  a  wonderful  amount 
of  good  through  its  St.  Andrew's  Home  or  direct  charita 
ble  agencies.  In  a  discourse  preached  to  the  members 
by  the  Rev.  J.  Edgar  Hill,  on  the  occasion  of  the  jubilee 
of  the  society,  the  following  reference  to  the  early  history 
of  the  organization  was  made:  "  Previous  to  1835  there 
had  been  no  organized  brotherhood  of  Scotchmen  in  the 
city,  and  therefore  no  systematic  care  of  immigrants  from 
the  old  land.  From  1835  to  1857  the  society  had  a  name, 
but  no  place  of  habitation.  Good  work  it  had  done,  but  it 
would  do  better.  Accordingly,  in  the  early  days  of  June, 
1857,  St.  Andrew's  Home  was  opened,  so  that  those  who 
had  left  a  home  endeared  to  them  by  many  tender  asso 
ciations  should,  in  the  new  land  across  the  sea,  at  once 
find  a  home  provided  for  them  till  they  had  made  a  home 
for  themselves.  The  idea  was  a  brilliant  one,  and  the 
time  as  well  as  the  place  was  marked  by  an  obvious  lead 
ing  of  Providence.  For,  while  the  home  was  opened  on 
June  u,  the  most  pathetic  appeal  that  has  ever  been 
made  to  the  St.  Andrew's  Society,  and  the  most  severe 
test  to  which  her  philanthropy  has  been  subjected,  was 


424  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

made  on  the  27th  day  of  the  same  month,  when  the 
'  Montreal '  was  burned  to  the  water's  edge  a  few  miles 
below  Quebec,  on  her  passage  to  this  city,  and  nearly  400 
persons  either  perished  in  the  flames  or  were  drowned  in 
trying  to  make  their  escape.  The  survivors,  of  course, 
lost  their  all.  Many  of  them  were  widows  and  orphans, 
and  all  of  them  were  sorrowful  strangers  in  a  strange 
land,  under  circumstances  which  evoked  the  sympathy  of 
every  tender  heart.  Most  of  these  were  Scottish  immi 
grants,  and  at  once  the  St.  Andrew's  Society  undertook 
most  loyally  to  provide  for  every  Scot  among  them,. 
'  How  much  money  do  you  want?'  was  the  almost  in 
variable  question  the  collectors  were  met  with — a  splen 
did  example  of  the  characteristic  Scotch  way  of  answer 
ing  questions  by  putting  another.  Funds  flowed  in  from 
Scotsmen  all  over  Canada,  for  Scottish  hearts  were  bleed 
ing  for  their  suffering  brothers  and  sisters." 

St.  Andrew's  societies  have  probably  existed  from  the 
time  that  the  Scot  abroad  first  began  his  travels.  In  the 
earlier  stages  of  their  history  they  were  merely  tempo 
rary  organizations  for  the  celebration  of  the  anniversary 
of  the  patron  saint.  The  Scots'  Guards  in  France  re 
joiced  in  a  better  dinner  than  usual  on  the  3Oth  of  No 
vember,  and  in  our  researches  into  the  history  of  our 
countrymen  on  the  European  Continent  we  find  many 
evidences  that  St.  Andrew's  Day  was  fondly  kept  in  re 
membrance.  Afterward,  when  men  got  settled  and 
Scotch  colonies  began  to  arise,  the  regular  society,  as  we 
have  it  now,  was  commenced.  Originally  the  societies 
were  simply  patriotic  in  their  aims,  but  afterward  charity 
was  added,  and  both  of  these  grand  qualities  have  com 
bined  to  strengthen  the  organizations  and  make  them 
useful  as  well  as  sentimental.  In  Scotland,  the  few  St. 
Andrew's  societies  there  are  simply  kept  alive  in  the  in 
terests  of  patriotism  and  are  nearly  all  modern  affairs, 
with  no  history  of  any  great  interest  to  any  one  outside 
of  their  own  little  circles. 

If  a  Scotsman  wants  to  see  his  patron  saint  suitably 
honored  he  must  leave  Scotland  and  sojourn  in  Amer 
ica,  where  undoubtedly  the  kindly  memory  of  the  good 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  425 

old  missionary  is  cherished  with  the  fires  of  loyalty  and 
love.  If  we  were  to  believe  the  orators  on  the  closing 
night  of  November  in  each  year,  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  we  would  regard  Andrew  as  the  champion  saint 
in  the  calendar,  "  the  king  o'  a'  the  core,"  and  Scotland  as 
a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  whose  men  are  the 
very  cream  of  humanity,  and  whose  lassies  are  genuine 
queens  of  Parnassus,  who  have  just  come  down  to  earth 
for  a  little  change  and  relaxation.  Patriotism  runs  high 
on  such  nights.  Scotland  is  Scotland  and  no  mistake, 
and  woe  be  it  to  any  wight  who  dares  to  gainsay  it.  But 
such  a  wight  never  appears,  and  the  next  day  the  high- 
strung  patriot  becomes  a  canny  Scot  once  more,  and  for 
the  remaining  364  days  in  the  year  his  patron  saint  is  a 
quiet,  but  none  the  less  generous,  distributor  of  charity. 
There  is  no  more  generous  Scot  to  be  found  anywhere 
than  the  one  who  backs  up  his  nationality  with  his  siller, 
and  while  "  Relieve  the  Distressed  "  is  the  accepted  motto 
of  the  societies,  "  Patriotism  and  Parritch "  would  be 
more  pertinent  and  comprehensive. 

Clubs  or  societies  organized  under  the  name  Caledo 
nian  can  be  traced  back  in  this  country  for  about  a  cent 
ury.  In  the  early  times  they  were  simply  social  combi 
nations  of  Scotsmen  who  got  up  some  festival,  such  as  a 
ball,  during  the  Winter,  and  for  the  remainder  of  the 
year  remained  in  a  condition  of  suspended  animation, 
somewhat  after  the  fashion  of  many  of  the  Burns  clubs  at 
the  present  day.  The  oldest  existing  Caledonian  organi 
zation  in  the  Dominion  is  that  of  Montreal,  while  in 
the  United  States  that  of  Boston  claims  to  be  the  senior 
in  point  of  age.  But  neither  of  these  organizations  would 
have  survived  for  half  a  decade  had  they  not  been  organ 
ized  on  definite  plans  and  for  specific  purposes,  and  had 
these  purposes  not  met,  or  anticipated,  a  public  want. 
All  the  clubs  or  societies  which  have  proved  successful 
have  been,  to  a  certain  extent,  business  enterprises,  and 
just  as  much  as  they  have  been  managed  on  business 
principles  so  much  has  been  their  measure  of  success.  In 
Scotland  the  parish  or  village  games  have  been  in  vogue 
from  time  immemorial,  and  have  generally  been  held  on, 


426  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

or  in  connection  with,  a  local  holiday.  It  was  the  repro 
duction,  by  the  originators  of  these  clubs,  of  such  local 
holidays  with  athletic  games  as  a  central  attraction  that 
caught  the  fancy  and  made  them  popular  among  "  oor 
ain  folk/'  Americans,  too,  always  noted  for  their  admi 
ration  for  manly  sports,  thronged  to  the  gatherings  in 
such  numbers  that  the  promoters  of  the  earlier  games 
were  often  surprised  at  the  crowds  which  attended  them, 
and  the  substantial  amount  of  the  gate  receipts. 

The  main  objects  of  the  Caledonian  organizations  as 
at  present  existing  are  twofold — first,  the  encouragement 
and  practice  of  Scottish  games,  and,  second,  the  encour 
agement  of  a  taste  for  Scottish  literature,  poetry,  and 
song.  These  objects  are  generally  stated  in  their  by 
laws,  not,  perhaps,  in  these  identical  words,  but  in  others 
having  the  same  purport.  The  rules  of  many  of  the 
clubs  make  it  imperative  that  public  games  should  be 
held  at  least  once  each  year,  and  in  the  open  air. 

So  far  as  the  first  of  these  objects — the  encouragement 
and  practice  of  games — is  concerned,  the  Caledonian  so 
cieties  of  this  continent  must  be  credited  with  having 
achieved  a  wonderful  amount  of  success.  They  have 
made  the  old-fashioned  Scottish  games  not  only  very 
popular,  but  the  Scottish  rules  are  really  the  basis  on 
which  all  athletic  contests  here  are  conducted.  But  even 
this  success  has  latterly  proved  so  far  detrimental  to  the 
clubs  that  their  games  are  not,  from  a  pecuniary  point  of 
view,  so  remunerative  as  they  formerly  were.  All  over 
the  country,  during  the  season,  games  are  held  under  the 
auspices  of  local  athletic  clubs,  and  these  games  are  near 
ly  all  very  similar  to  those  which  might  be  witnessed  at 
Hawick  or  Inverness.  Most  athletic  clubs  have  weekly 
meetings,  frequent  tournaments  with  sister  clubs,  while 
now  and  again  an  amateur  "  star "  goes  on  a  record- 
breaking  tour  among  them.  The  result  is  that  these  lo 
cal  organizations  push  the  Caledonians  into  the  back 
ground,  and  their  frequent  meetings  seem  fully  to  supply 
the  demand,  so  far  as  the  public  are  concerned.  There 
are  many  other  reasons  for  this.  In  the  athletic  world  a 
Caledonian  record  is  regarded  with  suspicion,  even  if  it 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  42? 

should  be  honored  with  any  regard  at  all,  which  is  very 
seldom.  The  system  of  handicapping,  too,  which  is  so 
generally  adopted  in  athletic  societies,  has  served  to 
bring  a  succession  of  bright  young  men  into  the  arena 
year  after  year,  while  at  Caledonian  gatherings  it  is  usual 
to  find  the  war  horses  of  ten  years  ago  war  horses  still. 
The  true  theory  of  Caledonian  athletes  originally  was  to 
develop  the  skill*  strength,  and  agility  of  their  own  mem 
bers,  and  hacT  this  theory  been  carried  out  in  practice  a 
more  satisfactory  condition  of  things  would  have  existed 
to-day.  But  one  club  wanted  to  have  its  athletic  records 
as  good  as  another.  If  a  hammer  was  thrown  90  feet  at 
Yonkers,  for  instance,  the  Poughkeepsie  folks  wanted  it 
thrown  as  far,  if  not  further,  at  their  games.  And  so 
commenced  the  nuisance  of  traveling  professional  Cale 
donian  athletes.  These  men,  of  course,  were  members  of 
sister  societies,  and  from  a  sentimental  point  of  view  were 
entitled  to  equal  privileges  with  the  members  of  any  club 
they  might  favor  with  a  visit.  This  was  all  very  well  for 
a  while,  but  some  of  the  clubs  were  not  very  particular 
who  they  received  into  membership  while  the  athletic 
craze  was  strong.  The  result  was  that  the  Scotch  games 
were  crowded  with  such  Caledonian  athletes  as  "  Mr.  Ma- 
loney,"  "  Mr.  Euth,"  "  Mr.  Sullivan,"  "  Mr.  McCarthy," 
and  the  like.  The  most  advanced  club  in  this  connection 
was  that  of  Philadelphia,  which  opened  its  "  Caledonian  " 
games  to  all  comers  without  distinction  of  creed,  nation 
ality,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude.  The  result  was 
that  those  who,  in  the  Quaker  City,  went  to  see  Scotch 
games  saw  a  general  scramble  for  the  prizes  by  negroes, 
Irishmen,  and  Germans,,  as  well  as  Scots. 

All  these  things  combined  to  make  the  Caledonian 
games  wane  in  popularity,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  they 
will  never  again  gain  their  old  measure  of  success.  In 
fact,  the  quality  of  the  games  as  athletic  events  has  van 
ished,  and,  while  the  annual  field  days  of  the  various 
clubs  may  be  kept  up,  they  will  be  more  useful  for  draw 
ing  the  Scots  in  their  various  localities — for  making  a 
Scotch  holiday,  as  it  were — than  for  anything  else. 

As  regards  the  encouragement  of  Scottish  literature, 


428  THE     SCOT    IN    AMERICA. 

poetry,  and  song1,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  Cale 
donian  clubs  have  not  added  much  to  the  national  wealth. 
In  Philadelphia  for  many  years  a  series  of  literary  meet 
ings  has  been  held  each  Winter.  These  assemblies  are 
well  attended,  and  at  them  a  Scotch  song  can  always  be 
heard  well  sung,  but  the  purely  literary  element  is  very 
meagre.  This  fact  is  to  be  deplored,  and  even  wondered 
at,  for  in  a  cultured  city  like  Philadelphia  it  should  be  an 
easy  matter  to  arrange  for  a  short  lecture  or  talk  upon 
some  Scottish  theme  at  each  meeting.  In  Montreal  a 
good  series  of  sociables  is  given  each  Winter,  and  the 
Hallowe'en  entertainment  is  generally  the  best  of  the 
kind  on  the  continent,  but  such  meetings,  or  the  innu 
merable  socials  held  by  other  organizations  each  Winter, 
do  little  or  nothing  for  literature.  In  New  York  they 
have  lectures  and  a  very  commonplace  debating  organi 
zation  ;  in  Boston  such  matters  seem  to  be  severely  passed 
by  without  an  effort  to  produce  them.  In  Chicago  the 
effort  has  been  made,  but  without  success.  The  fact  is, 
the  literary  element  in  the  clubs  is  grasped  in  too  half 
hearted  a  way  to  insure  success.  If  the  Caledonians  cop 
ied  the  Welsh,  and  offered  prizes  for  the  singing  of  auld 
Scotch  songs,  or  if  they  offered  prizes  for  essays  on  dis 
tinctively  Scottish  subjects,  if  they  organized  scholar 
ships  in  the  colleges  for  the  benefit  of  students  of  Scot 
tish  birth  or  descent,  if  they  gave  prizes  in  the  local 
schools  for  the  study  of  Scotch  history,  if  they  subsidized 
a  lecturer  who  could  speak  on  Scottish  themes  before 
popular  audiences,  if  they  helped  a  Scottish  poet  to  place 
his  productions  before  the  American  public,  then  they 
might  be  credited  with  doing  something  in  furthering  the 
second  of  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  primarily  es 
tablished. 

The  wearing  of  the  Highland  costume  at  public  gath 
erings  has  been  a  feature  of  all  Caledonian  organizations, 
and  by  their  activity  in  this  matter  they  have  certainly 
succeeded  in  making  the  "  garb  of  old  Gaul "  familiar 
throughout  the  Northern  and  Western  States  and  Can 
ada.  By  frequently  giving  prizes  for  the  best  costume, 
they  have  inspired  a  kindly  spirit  of  rivalry,  until  at  the 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  429 

present  time  we  have  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  many 
costumes  as  complete  and  as  perfect  as  any  that  could  be 
seen  in  Scotland.  It  is  singular,  however,  that  while  the 
Highland  dress  is  thus  patronized,  the  music  which  is  as 
sociated  with  it  should  be  comparatively  neglected.  Bag 
pipe  playing  is  neither  fostered  or  regarded  by  the  clubs. 
Of  course,  they  must  have  pipe  playing,  but  any  one  who 
can  "  blaw  "  and  use  his  fingers  as  though  he  was  manip 
ulating  a  penny  whistle  is  deemed  good  enough  for  any 
occasion.  Real  good  playing,  such  as  is  common  at  the 
Braemar,  Strathallan,  or  other  gatherings  in  Scotland,  is 
seldom  heard  in  America,  and  when  heard  is  not  suffi 
ciently  appreciated. 

In  this  country  and  Canada,  Caledonian  clubs  and  so 
cieties  have,  in  spite  of  their  shortcomings  and  failures,  in 
the  past  accomplished  much  good.  They  have  made 
many  pleasant  Scottish  holidays;  brought  Scotsmen  and 
their  families  into  closer  friendship  with  each  other,  and 
by  their  kindly  charity  and  fraternal  aid  have  lightened 
the  load  of  many  a  wanderer.  They  have  made  Scottish 
games  become  the  delight  of  the  youth  of  America,  and 
the  laws  they  have  established  for  the  guidance  of  such 
sports  are  generally  accepted  as  the  best  as  well  as  the 
most  just  that  could  be  framed.  Their  record,  on  the 
whole,  has  been  a  creditable  one,  and,  while  we  believe 
that  they  will  require  to  seek  new  fields  of  operations  if 
they  are  to  maintain  their  popularity,  we  believe  that  in 
good  time  these  new  fields  will  be  entered  upon.  If  ath 
leticism  be  played  out,  literature  is  not,  and  by  cultivating 
that,  and  dropping  all  idea  of  mere  financial  success,  these 
Caledonian  organizations,  clubs,  and  societies  may  yet 
attain  a  degree  of  influence  and  accomplish  an  amount  of 
good  which  will  make  the  past,  even  with  all  its  triumphs, 
seem  trifling  in  comparison. 

While  athletics  may  be  regarded  as  the  basis  of  Cale 
donian  Clubs,  insurance  is  undoubtedly  the  foundation 
of  the  Order  of  Scottish  Clans.  This  order  has  passed 
through  the  trials  of  infancy  and  youth  and  is  now  in  ro 
bust  manhood,  and  claims  and  takes  it  place  as  one  of  the 
most  useful  of  Scottish  societies  in  America.  It  was  or- 


430  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

ganized  in  St.  Louis  in  1878.  For  some  time  its  schemes 
were  confined  to  that  city,  but  after  a  year  or  two  it 
was  taken  up  by  a  number  of  Boston  Scots,  and  a 
"  boom  "  was  started  on  its  behalf  which  still  continues 
as  vigorous  as  ever.  As  the  advantages  offered  by  the 
order  became  known,  clans  commenced  to  spring  up  all 
over  the  country,  until  at  present  there  are  over  100  of 
these,  and  several  in  course  of  formation.  Four  or  five 
clans  are  located  in  Canada,  but  across  the  border  the 
order  has  not  progressed  as  was  at  one  time  expected. 

When  the  Order  of  Scottish  Clans  was  started  the  idea 
was  to  institute  a  grand  federation  of  Scotsmen  in  Amer 
ica,  which,  by  united  effort  and  a  display  of  the  truest 
fraternal  spirit,  \vas  to  combine  sentiment  and  patriotism 
with  more  practical  matters.  The  members  were  to  unite 
in  insuring  their  lives,  sick  benefits  were  to  be  provided, 
and  a  helping  hand  extended  to  any  overtaken  by  mis 
fortune.  The  fraternity  was  to  be  a  secret  one,  that  is, 
it  was  to  meet  with  closed  doors  and  have  signs  and  pass 
words  after  the  fashion  of  the  Odd  Fellows.  It  was  to  have 
all  the  social  features  which  distinguished  the  Caledonian 
societies,  and,  if  need  be,  it  would  give  public  exhibitions 
of  old  Scottish  games.  It  was  to  be  a  complete  organiza 
tion,  offering  to  fill  all  the  requirements  of  Scottish-Amer 
icans,  only  that  its  benefits  were  to  be  confined  to  its  own 
members,  possibly  on  the  theory  that  all  Scotsmen  should 
be  on  its  rolls. 

The  original  ideas  which  guided  the  organization,  while 
well  enough  for  a  local  society  the  members  of  which 
were  known  to  each  other,  were  too  crude  to  be  success 
fully  worked  in  a  large  fraternity  the  members  of  which 
were  scattered  throughout  the  country.  The  insurance 
scheme,  that  of  each  surviving  member  paying  a  dollar 
on  the  death  of  one  of  their  number,  seemed  the  very 
essence  of  simplicity,  but  experience  had  demonstrated  in 
other  societies  that  the  plan  was  not  so  effective  or  so 
equitable  as  it  appeared  on  the  surface,  and  after  a  few 
years  of  the  existence  of  the  order  doubts  on  this  point 
began  to  be  entertained  by  many  of  its  warmest  adherents. 
This,  however,  might  have  been  expected.  In  insurance 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  431 

matters  no  society  was  ever  organized  at  once  on  a  per 
fect  basis.  Experience  is  the  great  requirement  of  them 
all,  and,  until  that  experience  has  been  gained,  mistakes 
are  certain  to  be  made.  Such  societies  require  to  be 
watchful,  to  put  into  practice  one  year  what  they  learned 
during  the  year  before,  to  make  changes  after  considera 
tion  and  practice  shows  the  necessity  for  change,  and  to 
be  constantly  strengthening  the  organization  at  every 
point,  no  matter  how  trivial.  This  policy  has  character 
ized  the  leaders  and  workers  of  the  order  during  the  past 
few  years.  They  have  proved  themselves  thoughtful, 
progressive,  and  capable,  and  the  fraternity  has  advanced 
in  a  surprising  manner,  as  a  result  of  their  work.  They 
have  had  to  encounter  opposition,  sneering,  grumbling, 
and  fault-finding;  but  they  have  kept  on  doing  their  pa 
triotic  work,  until  the  full  assessment  is  paid  to  the  rela 
tives  of  a  deceased  member.  Fault  finding  does  not 
amount  to  very  much,  but  $2,000  is  a  happy,  tangible  fact. 

The  great  necessity  for  the  welfare  of  all  such  insti 
tutions  is  the  \vant  of  Government,  or,  in  some  sections, 
State  supervision.  If  the  law  compelled  assessment  in 
surance  companies  to  apply  for  permission  to  trade,  if 
their  promoters  were  made  to  give  bonds  to  the  State  for 
the  honorable  carrying  out  of  all  their  agreements,  if  the 
policies  were  issued  with  the  sanction  of  the  law  advisers 
of  the  State,  and  the  business  books  were  liable  to  be  ex 
amined  by  some  competent  officer  at  irregular  intervals, 
we  might  regard  assessment  insurance  as  being  as  safe 
as  any  other.  Fewer  companies  would  then  be  organized, 
but  those  which  fulfilled  all  the  requirements  would  pos 
sess  stability.  The  management  of  this  order  has  been 
clean.  It  has  paid  every  debt  as  it  has  arisen.  Its 
officers,  except  the  Secretary,  receive  no  emoluments, 
and  its  membership  is  selected  with  care  as  regards  na 
tionality,  moral  character  and  physical  health. 

The  question  of  grading  assessments  according  to  age, 
which  was  a  theme  of  much  discussion  among  the  broth 
erhood  for  several  years,  has  been  equitably  and  amica 
bly  adjusted,  and,  so  far  as  one  can  see,  there  is  no  ob 
stacle  in  the  way  to  prevent  the  order  from  steadily  in- 


432  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

creasing1  until  every  Scottish  workman  in  the  country 
shall  be  enrolled  on  its  books.  In  the  States  it  has  prac 
tically  no  opposition  to  its  work,  excepting  from  what  is 
called  the  American  Order  of  Scottish  Clans,  which,  how 
ever,  is  not  numerically  strong. 

The  insurance  feature  of  the  order  might  be  that  of 
any  society,  but  in  the  subordinate  clans  the  Scotch  ele 
ment  comes  to  the  front.  The  membership  is  confined  to 
Scotsmen  and  their  immediate  descendants,  and  the 
moral  character  of  each  applicant  is  carefully  enquired 
into.  The  ritual  which  is  used  in  the  initiation  of  candi 
dates  is  founded  on  Scottish  history,  and  when  intelli 
gently  rendered  is  both  impressive  and  instructive.  The 
sick  allowance  in  most  of  the  clans  is  $5  a  week,  with  free 
medical  attendance,  and  these  benefits,  as  well  as  the 
working  expenses  of  the  clan,  are  provided  by  the  month 
ly  dues  of  the  members.  Many  of  the  clans,  too,  have  a 
funeral  benefit  of  $50,  which  is  paid  at  once  on  intimation 
of  death.  The  meetings  are  generally  well  attended,  and 
are  managed  with  both  order  and  decorum,  two  quali 
ties  which  are  not  characteristic  of  other  societies  that 
might  be  named.  Open  social  meetings  at  which  the  rel 
atives  and  friends  of  members  are  invited  are  frequently 
given,  and  the  public  balls,  concerts,  and  anniversary  fes 
tivals  have  generally  been  successful.  Some  of  the  clans 
have  given  games,  but  this  feature,  although  one  of  the 
objects  laid  down  in  the  constitution,  has  not  been  at 
tended  to  as  it  should  have  been.  Each  clan  has  its  re 
galia,  in  which  its  own  particular  tartan  predominates, 
and  the  appearance  of  the  members  of  the  order  on  pub 
lic  occasions,  dressed  in  their  costume,  is  one  of  the  most 
gratifying  spectacles  which  a  Scotsman  in  America  can 
see. 

In  many  respects  the  Order  of  Sons  of  Scotland,  a  Ca 
nadian  organization,  runs  in  much  the  same  grooves  as 
the  Order  of  Scottish  Clans  in  the  States.  It  is  econom 
ically  managed,  the  meetings  of  its  camps  are  not  only 
interesting  but  thoroughly  patriotic  affairs,  and  its  opera 
tions  are  yearlv  extending  all  over  the  Dominion. 

A  Burns  club  or  society,  properly  speaking,  is  quite  a 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  433 

different  .description  of  organization  from  any  of  which 
we  have  already  treated.  It  is  organized  for  but  one  pur 
pose — that  of  honoring  the  memory  of  Scotia's  darling 
poet.  It  is  eminently  a  social  and  literary  association, 
and  its  entire  horizon  is  bounded  by  that  filled  by  the 
Ayrshire  bard.  But  that  is  sufficient  to  infuse  vitality  and 
enthusiasm  into  any  body  of  men,  particularly  if  they  are 
Scots  or  descendants  of  Scots. 

There  is  another  difference  between  the  Burns  and  St. 
Andrew's  and  Caledonian  societies,  or  clans.  The  latter 
are  all  essentially  Scottish,  and  membership  in  them  is 
more  or  less  confined  to  natives,  or  the  immediate  de 
scendants  of  natives,  of  Scotland.  Inasmuch,  however. 
as  the  fame  of  Burns  is  no  longer  simply  confined  to 
Scotland  but  has  spread  over  all  the  world,  so  member 
ship  in  clubs  bearing  his  name  is  generally  open  to  all 
who  reverence  his  memory  or  admire  his  genius.  It  is  felt 
that  if  these  clubs  are  to  be  gatherings  of  lovers  of  the 
poet,  the  members  should  admit  into  their  circles  men  of 
any  nationality  who  recognize  the  worth  of  the  "  High 
Priest  of  Scottish  Song/'  This  is  as  it  should  be.  All 
who  acknowledge  our  bard  as  the  poet  of  humantiy,  free 
dom,  fraternity,  and  love  should  be  welcomed  into  such 
clubs,  and  be  received  all  the  more  heartily  because  they 
do  not  belong  to  our  nationality,  and  have  to  contend 
with  difficulties  in  the  study  of  the  poet  which  do  not  fall 
to  our  lot. 

The  great  night  of  the  year  for  any  Burns  Club  is  the 
25th  of  January,  and  care  is  generally  taken  that  it  be 
celebrated  in  a  manner  that  will  really  honor  the  memory 
of  the  poet  and  reflect  credit  on  his  native  land  and  on 
his  countrymen  at  home  as  well  as  abroad.  The  most 
usual  form  for  the  celebration  to  assume  is  that  of  a  pub 
lic  dinner.  This  is  often  very  pleasant  for  those  who  are 
present,  and  it  brings  to  the  front  quite  a  crowd  of  speak 
ers,  and  eulogies  of  Burns  without  number,  and  often 
without  common  sense  or  discrimination. 

The  dues  in  a  Burns  Club,  outside  of  what  the  annual 
celebration  costs,  are  trifling.  There  is,  indeed,  no  primal 
necessity  for  a  fund,  and  what  is  over  at  the  end  of  each 


4.°>4  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

year  in  the  Treasurer's  hands  should  be  handed  to  the 
nearest  St.  Andrew's  society  to  be  dispensed  in  charity. 
This  would  be  fully  in  keeping  with  the  teachings  of 
Burns  himself  and  redound  to  the  credit  of  the  organiza 
tion.  Should  the  members  be  willing  to  assess  them 
selves  a  little  more  than  is  absolutely  necessary  there  are 
many  ways  in  which  their  money  might  be  invested.  They 
might  purchase  copies  of  Burns's  poems  and  give  them 
as  prizes  each  year  in  the  public  schools,  or  they  could 
offer  a  bonus  for  the  best  poem  on  Burns  or  for  the  best 
essay  on  his  life  or  genius.  These  are  not  extravagant 
undertakings,  and  quite  within  the  reach  of  almost  any 
club  member,  yet  we  do  not  know  any  better  means  tha't 
could  be  suggested  for  making  the  memory  of  our  bard 
even  more  beloved  throughout  the  American  continent 
than  it  is  at  the  present  day. 

The  game  of  curling  has  made  rapid  strides  in  this 
country  since  its  introduction,  but  though  it  be  "  Sco 
tia's  ain  Winter  game,"  and  though  Scotsmen  have  nat 
urally  been  prominent  in  it,  it  really  sets  no  national  re 
quirement  in  connection  with  its  membership,  and  prefers 
to  win  success  simply  as  a  game — the  only  purely  ama 
teur  game  in  existence.  Therefore  it  claims  no  extended 
notice  here  beyond  simply  alluding  to  it  as  one  among  the 
many  favors  which  Scotland  has  bestowed  on  the  New 
World. 

So,  too,  might  Scotland's  share  in  American  Free  Ma 
sonry  be  dismissed  in  a  few  words  were  it  not  for  the 
fact  that  its  history  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  goes  back 
to  a  much  earlier  period  than  that  of  curling,  and  there 
are  many  historical  facts  in  connection  with  it  which 
should  not  be  passed  over  in  a  volume  of  this  kind,  es 
pecially  as  a  claim  has  been  made  that  the  mysteries  of 
the  ancient  order  were  first  carried  over  the  sea  by  breth 
ren  who  owed  allegiance  to  the  Grand  Lodge  at  old 
Kilwinning. 

So  far  as  can  be  traced,  Freemasonry  in  legitimate 
lodges  having  their  authority  from  some  Grand  Lodge, 
was  first  introduced  into  America  by  warranted  lodges 
working  under  the  jurisdiction  of  one  of  the  Grand 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  435 

Lodges  in  the  United  Kingdom.  The  records  of  these 
Grand  Lodges  are  very  defective,  especially  those  of  Ire 
land,  as  most  of  its  papers  were  destroyed  by  fire.  The 
English  records  appear  to  have  been  purposely  kept  in 
an  indifferent  manner,  probably  from  an  idea  which  once 
prevailed  that  as  little  as  possible  should  be  committed 
to  writing  concerning  Masonry  and  its  doings — even  the 
doings  of  subordinate  lodges.  To  this  erroneous  notion 
is  due  much  of  the  defective  information  we  have  con 
cerning  many  matters  of  interest  in  the  general  history 
of  the  craft. 

Among  the  early  lodges  in  this  country  which  held 
warrants  from  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Scotland  were: 

1755 — St.  Andrew's  Lodge,  Boston. 

1 7  q6— Lodge  No.  82,  Blandford,  Va. 

1760 — Union,  No.  98,  South  Carolina. 

1763 — St.  John's,  No.  117,  Norfolk,  Va. 

1767 — Moriah  Lodge,  in  Twenty-second  Regiment, 
afterward  in  New  York. 

1771 — King  Solomon's  Lodge,  No.  7,  in  New  York, 
had  a  charter  indirectly  from  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  Scotland,  for  there  is  no  record  of 
the  Grand  Lodge  of  Scotland  ever  having 
issued  a  direct  warrant  to  any  lodge  in  New 
York,  whether  as  a  colony  or  a  State. 

The  most  noted  of  these  lodges,  that  of  St.  Andrew's, 
Boston,  still  survives,  the  wealthiest  Masonic  lodge  in 
the  United  States,  if  not  in  the  world. 

The  earliest  military  lodge  in  the  records  of  the  Scot 
tish  Grand  Lodge  was  granted,  according  to  Mr.  D. 
Murray  Lyon,  Grand  Secretary,  in  1743,  by  recommenda 
tion  of  the  Earl  of  Kilmarnock,  upon  petition  of  some 
"  Sergeants  and  sentinels  belonging  to  Col.  Lees'  Regi 
ment  of  Foot."  This  regiment  has  been  given  the  num 
ber,  Forty-fourth.  This  regiment  was  raised  in  1741  in 
England,  and  had  its  first  experience  in  actual  warfare  in 
this  country  in  1758.  It  took  part  in  the  expeditions 
against  Ticonderoga,  Fort  Duquesne,  and  Fort  Niagara, 
and  the  engagements,  of  Long  Island  and  Brandywine. 


436  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

What  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  outcome  of  another 
regimental  lodge  was  that  in  the  Twenty-second  Regi 
ment,  which  received  its  warrant  from  the  Grand  Lodge 
of  Scotland  in  1767.  The  regiment  was  in  this  city  in 
1781,  and  was  known  as  Moriah  Lodge.  It  was  one  of 
the  five  which  formed  the  New  York  Grand  Lodge,  but 
outside  of  that  importatnt  bit  of  service  it  does  not  seem 
to  have  had  much  to  do  with  the  progress  of  Masonry  in 
this  State.  The  regiment  soon  afterward  was  ordered 
away  from  New  York  to  another  scene  of  usefulness — 
or  carnage. 

The  most  prominent  lodge,  however,  which,  in  1781, 
took  part  in  the  formation  of  the  New  York  Grand 
Lodge,  was  that  known  as  "  Lodge  No.  169,"  under  the 
warrant  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Scotland,  the  lodge  which 
afterward  adopted  the  name  of  "  St.  Andrew's  Lodge," 
and  continued  to  be  active  in  New  York  Masonry  until 
1830,  when  its  charter  was  surrendered. 

The  origin  of  this  lodge  is  not  exactly  known,  but  it 
very  likely  was  in  one  of  he  regimental  lodges.  It  is  not 
known  even  where  it  got  its  original  charter,  and  some 
Masonic  writers  often  mix  it  up  with  the  St.  Andrew's 
Lodge  of  Boston.  On  July  13,  1771,  it  had  obtained  a 
warrant  from  the  Grand  Lodge  of  England  with  the  title 
of  "  Lodge  No.  169,"  and  it  took  the  name  of  Scotland's 
patron  saint  officially,  so  far  as  we  know,  in  1786.  It  is 
asserted  by  some  writers  that  the  lodge  met  under  its 
numerical  designation  in  Boston,  but  this  is  doubted, 
and  certainly  there  is  nothing  on  record  to  prove  it,  and 
the  general  consensus  of  opinion  among  Masonic  anti 
quaries  is  that  its  first  settled  home  was  in  New- York. 

On  the  roll  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Scotland  there  is 
record  of  a  lodge — St.  John,  No.  169 — at  Shettleston, 
near  Glasgow,  receiving  a  warrant  in  1771.  It  is  a  ques 
tion  whether  this  had  any  connection  with  the  Lodge  No. 
169  which  met  in  Boston,  and  whose  warrant  was  dated 
the  same  year.  Gould,  in  his  "  History  of  Freemasonry," 
says:  "  No  169  was  established  in  Battery  Marsh,  Bos- 
ton,  1771.  This  lodge,  which  is  only  once  named  in  the 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  437 

records  of  the  Massachusetts  Grand  Lodge,  accompanied 
the  British  Army  to  New  York  on  the  evacuation  of 
Boston  in  17/6."  Another  authority  says  it  is  not  im 
probable  that  the  Scottish  warrant  granted  for  Shettle- 
ston  was  transferred  to  an  army  lodge  and  Lodge  St. 
John  became  in  time  St.  Andrew.  Another  matter  which 
is  regarded  as  very  probable  is  that  the  origin  of  the  St. 
Andrew's  Lodge  of  New  York  was  this  same  regimental 
warrant  held  in  the  Forty-second' Regiment,  the  famous 
"  Black  Watch." 

The  Scottish  regiments  in  New  York  from  1770  to  the 
evacuation  of  the  city  were  the  Forty-second,  which 
came  here  in  1776  for  a  short  stay,  returned  in  1780,  spent 
a  Winter  here,  had  their  headquarters  most  of  the  time 
in  Albany,  and  were  in  this  city  some  months  before  the 
evacuation,  Nov.  25,  1783,  when  they  went  to  Halifax. 
The  Seventy-first  (old)  was  in  this  city  in  1777  and  then 
went  South.  They  had  a  stirring  career  in  the  Colonies 
until  they  surrendered  with  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown. 
The  present  Seventy-first  Regiment  was  never  in  this 
country.  The  Seventy-fourth  (old)  was  represented  in 
this  city  by  a  grenadier  company  in  1779,  but  after  a 
short  stay  they  were  ordered  to  Charleston,  and  took  part 
in  its  siege.  The  Seventy-sixth  (old),  or  the  Macdonald 
Highlanders,  were  stationed  between  this  city  and  Staten 
Island  in  1779,  and  from  here  left  for  Virginia,  to  surren 
der  in  the  end  with  Cornwallis.  So  far  as  we  have  been 
able  to  discover,  this  completes  the  list.  Doubtless  many 
temporary  commands  were  sent  over  to  take  part  in  the 
great  struggle,  but  such  commands  would  not  be  likely 
to  apply  for  or  to  receive  a  warrant  from  any  Grand 
Lodge. 

Whatever  the  early  history  of  St.  Andrew's  Lodge 
here,  it  seems  to  have  soon  held  an  important  position 
in  the  craft.  The  first  meeting  to  organize  what  is  now 
the  Grand  Lodge  of  New  York  State  was  held  in  its 
meeting-room,  and  its  master,  the  Rev.  William  Walter, 
was  the  first  Grand  Master,  and  was  subsequently  re- 
elected  twice,  relinquishing  it  only  when  duty  called  him 
to  another  field  of  labor.  "  For  a  time,"  McClenachan 


438  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

says,  "  the  history  of  this  lodge  seemed  to  be  that  of  the 
Grand  body,  and  it  stood  pre-eminent  under  the  title  of 
St.  Andrew's,  No.  3,  on  and  after  June  3,  1789.  In  time 
the  Grand  Lodge  became  stronger  and  was  enabled  to 
walk  alone;  the  Grand  officers  were  more  widely  dis 
tributed,  and,  although  No.  3  continued  in  its  constancy, 
its  excessive  influence  waned." 

The  first  lodge  in  Maryland  of  which  there  is  record 
was  organized  in  1750,- and  its  first  Master  was  Dr.  Alex 
ander  Hamilton,  and  its  first  Senior  Warden  the  Rev. 
Alexander  Malcolm.  In  the  course  of  his  oration  at  the 
centennial  meeting  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Maryland, 
Past  Grand  Master  Carter  said:  "Tradition  says  there 
were  other  and  earlier  lodges  in  Maryland,  including 
one  called  St.  Andrew's  at  Georgetown,  now  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  formed  by  the  Scotch  settlers  some 
time  prior  to  1737."  One  of  the  early  Grand  Masters  of 
that  State  (the  fourth)  was  David  Kerr,  who  was  born 
in  Scotland  on  Feb.  5,  1749.  He  came  to  this  country 
when  in  his  twentieth  year,  just  when  the  Revolutionary 
movement  was  beginning  to  make  headway,  and  took 
sides  with  the  Colonists.  After  independence  had  been 
won  he  settled  at  Easton  and  prospered  in  business.  He 
died  in  1814,  leaving  a  family  which  upheld  the  credit  of 
his  name  throughout  the  State. 

The  Grand  Lodge  of  the  State  of  New  York  was  or 
ganized,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  meeting-room  of  St. 
Andrew's  Lodge  in  1781.  Its  charter  was  signed  by  the 
Duke  of  Atholl,  as  being  then  Grand  Master  of  "  the 
Ancients."  This  popular  Scotch  peer  was  born  June  30, 
1755,  and  succeeded  his  father  as  fourth  duke  in  1774.  He 
died  in  1820.  He  was  a  public-spirited  nobleman,  raised 
once  a  regiment  of  soldiers — the  Atholl  Highlanders — 
for  the  service  of  his  sovereign;  but,  except  in  Masonry, 
he  sought  no  public  honors. 

The  warrant  or  charter  issued  in  1781  authorized  the 
Masons  in  New  York  to  congregate  and  form  a  Provin 
cial  Grand  Lodge  in  the  City  of  New  York.  In  1783  the 
independence  of  the  United  States  was  acknowledged, 
and  with  that  independence  the  provincial  lodge  became 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  439 

a  sovereign  Grand  Lodge.  Of  the  first  Grand  Master, 
Mr.  Walter,  little  is  known,  save  that  he  was  a  chaplain  in 
one  of  the  regiments ;  that  he  was  Master  of  St.  Andrew's 
Lodge  at  the  time  of  his  elevation,  and  that  he  resigned 
his  high  office  because  duty  called  him  to  another  place. 
That  he  was  highly  respected  is  shown  by  the  many  offices 
to  which  he  was  elected  by  his  Masonic  brethren,  and  by 
the  resolutions  of  regret  which  expressed  their  sorrow  at 
the  necessity  of  parting  with  him.  In  this  sovereign 
Grand  Lodge  there  must  have  been  quite  a  strong  Scotch 
element,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  names  of  its  officials. 
James  McCuan  (McEwan)  was  Deputy  Grand  Master, 
James  Clarke  Grand  Secretary,  Archibald  McNeill 
Grand  Steward,  etc.  McCuan  was  succeeded  in  1783  by 
Archibald  Cunningham,  and  in  that  year  the  Grand 
Treasurer  was  Samuel  Kerr,  a  representative  Scotch 
merchant. 

Chancellor  Livingston  was  Grand  Master  from  1784 
till  1800,  and  most  of  the  members  of  his  family  belonged 
to  the  order.  Throughout  its  history  Scotsmen  have  all 
along  been  active  in  New  York's  Grand  Lodge,  and  that 
activity  still  continues.  Mr.  William  A.  Brodie,  a  native  of 
Kilbarchan,  was  Grand  Master  in  1884,  and  that  high  and 
honorable  office  is  now  held  by  Mr.  John  Stewart — who 
never  fails  to  boast  that  he  has  Scotch  blood  in  his  veins. 


With  this  chapter  we  close  our  study  of  the  Scot  in 
America.  The  theme  has  been  an  interesting  one  and 
has  led  us  into  innumerable  walks  of  life,  and  its  subject- 
matter  might  easily  have  been  extended  over  a  series 
of  volumes.  But  enough,  more  than  enough,  has 
been  adduced  to  prove  that  the  record  is  an  hon 
orable  one,  and  that  whatever  welcome  has  been 
given  to  the  expatriated  Scot  on  landing  in  America, 
or  whatever  honors  may  have  been  heaped  upon 
him,  are  amply  repaid  by  his  devotion  to  the  country 


440  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

by  the  care  with  which  he  fosters  its  best  interests, 
and  the  patriotic  efforts  he  makes  to  add  to  its  wealth 
and  to  its  dignity  among  the  nations.  The  Stars  and 
Stripes  raise  no  loftier  feelings  or  inspire  more  loy 
alty  in  the  heart  of  a  descendant  of  one  of  the  Mayflower 
party  than  in  the  heart  of  the  wanderer  from  Scotland 
who  has  made  his  home  in  the  United  States.  The  flag 
becomes  his  flag,  the  country  becomes  his  country,  and 
to  the  defense  of  the  one  his  blood  will  be  shed  if  needed, 
while  to  develop  the  interest  and  maintain  the  integrity 
of  the  other  he  will  devote  the  same  enthusiasm  and  the 
same  common  sense  that  have  served  his  own  country 
so  well.  A  believer  in  law,  he  is  ever  on  the  side  of  author 
ity;  a  believer  in  religion,  he  is  a  staunch  upholder  of 
public  and  private  morals  and  of  honesty  in  politics;  he 
does  not  aspire  to  political  influence,  to  control  a  caucus, 
or  lead  a  district;  but  he  treasures  his  ballot  as  the  out 
come  of  his  civil  liberty,  the  charter  of  his  freedom  and 
equality  in  the  Commonwealth.  Whatever  adds  to  the 
material  wealth  of  the  country  finds  him  an  effective  sup 
porter;  in  the  cause  of  education  he  is  ever  in  the  ranks 
of  the  foremost  workers,  and  in  charity  his  liberality  and 
practical  interest  are  everywhere  apparent.  Take  him  all 
in  all,  he  is  a  useful  citizen,  and  in  that  regard  is  second  to 
none.  His  patriotism  is  not  that  of  the  orator  who  believed 
in  "the  old  flag  and  an  appropriation;"  but  it  is  true, 
reverent,  and  from  the  depth  of  his  heart.  So,  too,  in  the 
great  Dominion  north  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  no  native 
has  a  deeper  affection  in  his  heart  of  hearts  for  "This 
Canada  of  Ours  "  than  the  Scot  who  has  thrown  in  his 
lot  in  that  part  of  the  continent,  and  he  is  as  proud  of  the 
maple  leaf  as  he  is  of  the  thistle. 

But,  while  giving  himself  thus  up  to  the  land  of  his 
adoption,  the  Scot  in  America  does  not  forget  the  land  of 
his  birth.  It  may  be  to  him  but  a  sentiment,  yet  the 
sentiment  burns  deeper  into  his  heart  as  the  years  roll  on. 
It  may  be  forever  to  him  a  reminiscence,  a  dream  of  the 
past,  and  the  mournful  notes  of  "  Lochaber  no  more  " 
may  sound  in  his  ears  as  he  conjures  back  to  memory 
the  once-familiar  scenes  and  recalls  once  weel-kenned 


SCOTTISH-AMERICAN     SOCIETIES.  441 

faces.  But,  as  time  creeps  on  its  very  name  becomes 
sacred,  and  his  highest  hopes  are  that  all  that  is  grand  in 
Scotland,  all  that  has  lifted  her  up  among  the  nations, 
that  has  made  her  be  regarded  as  an  unfaltering  cham 
pion  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  may  be  transplanted, 
preserved  and  perpetuated  in  the  land  which  has  become 
his  own.  He  never  thinks  of  Scotland  without  a  nutter, 
without  a  benediction;  and  he  is  ever  ready  to  re-utter  in 
his  own  words  the  sentiments  of  good  old  Isabella  Gra 
ham,  when,  Hearing  the  end  of  her  earthly  pilgrimage, 
she  wrote: 

"  Dear  native  land !  May  every  blessing  from  above 
and  beneath  be  thine — serenity  of  sky,  salubrity  of  air, 
fertility  of  soil;  and  pure  and  undefiled  religion  inspire 
thy  sons  and  daughters  with  grateful  hearts  to  love  God 
and  one  another." 


ABERCROMBIE,    Hon.    Jas.,  Callender,  James  Thomas,  353. 

4I4.  Callender,  Walter,  267. 

Adam,    Meldrum    &   Anderson,  Callender,   McAuslan  &  Troup, 

266.'  266. 

Affleck,  Robert,  231.  Calverley,   Charles,   181,  263. 

Ainslie,  Hew,  190,  388.  \  Cameron,  Dugald,  56. 

Aitken,  Robert,  244.  ^Campbell,  Alexander,  225. 

Alexander,  Sir  William,  45.          Campbell,  Daniel,  226. 
Alexander,    Gen.    William,    117,  Campbell,  Capt.  Laughlin,  50. 

308,  420.  Campbell,  Lord   William,  83. 

Allan,  John,  128.  Carnegie,  Andrew,  8,  273. 

Allan,  John,   (antiquary,)   13.        Carter,  Robert,  250. 
Allan,  Robert,  386.  Chalmers,  George,  353. 

Anderson,  William,  408.  Chisholm,  Henry,  212. 

Auchmuty,  Family,  307.  Chisholm,  William,  212. 

Cleland,  John,  414. 

BARCLAY,  Robert,  of  Ury,  85.  Cochran,  Thomas,  38. 
Bell,  A.  Graham,  214.  Colden,  Cadwallader,  91,  286. 

Bell,  A.  Melville,  214.  Colden,  Mayor  Cadwallader  D., 

Bennett,  James  Gordon,  372.  93,  231. 

Bethune,  Divie,  326,  327.  Craik,  Dr.  James,  199. 

Bethune,  Joanna,  325,  326.  Craig,  Sir  James  H.,  98. 

Black  Watch,  the,  27,  41,  32.       Crawford,  D.,  (St.  Louis,)  268. 
"  Boston  News  Letter,"  246.         Crawford,  William,  268. 
Boston  Scots'   Charitable  Soci-  Crerar,  D.  MacGregor,  404. 

ety,  49,  265,  412.  Crichton,  James  D.,  405. 

Craik,  James,  205.  Cuming,  Sir  Alexander,  415. 

British  Charitable  Society,  265.     Curling,  434. 
Brown,  Hon.  George,  373. 

Bruce,  George,  343-  DEMPSTER,  W.   R.,  346. 

Bruce,  Robert,  242.  Denholm  &  McKay  Co.,  266. 

Bruce,  Wallace,  408.  Dick,  Rev.  Robert,  211. 

Buchanan,  Rev.  Dr.,  175.  Dinwiddie,  Robert,  77. 

Burden,  Henry,  210.  Douglas,  David,  204. 

Burns  Clubs,  432.  Douglas,  Sir  James,  69. 

Burns,  Robt.,  first  Am.  ed.,  244.  Drummond,  William,  74. 
Burns,  Robt.,  2d  Am.  ed.,  231.      Drummond,  Lord,  420. 
Burns  statue  at  Albany,  262.        Dunbar,  Sir  William,  226. 
Burtt,  Rev.  John,  379.  Dunmore,  Earl  of,  78,  242,  420. 

CALDER,  A.  M.,  188.  ECKFORD,  Henry,  216. 

Caledonian  Clubs,  425.  Erskine,  Robert,  202. 

443 


444 


THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 


Ewing,  George  E.,  188. 

FAIRBAIRN,  Angus,  394. 
Ferguson,  James,  217. 
Ferguson,  Robert,  265. 
Fleming,  William,  120. 
Forbes  &  Wallace,  266. 
Forrest,  Edwin,  335. 
Fraser,  John,  ("  Cousin  Sandy 

395- 

Fraser,  Col.  Simon,  419. 
Freemasonry,  434. 
Fulton,  Robert,  301. 


Hewat,  Rev.  Alexander,  159. 
Hogg,    Brown    &    Taylor,    264, 

267,  268. 

Hunter,  Gov.  Peter,  97. 
Hunter,  Gen.  Robert,  87. 

IMRIE,  John,  407. 
Irving,  Washington,  quoted  18, 
')      59,   (Astoria;)  357,   (sketch.) 
Ivison,  Henry,  249. 


JAFFREY,  Jeannie  (Mrs.  Ren- 
wick,)  14. 

Johnston,  Gabriel,  81. 

Johnstone,  George,  80. 

Johnston,  John,  82. 

Gardner,  Hugh,  of  New  York, 9.  Johnston,    John,     (Milwaukee,) 
Geddes,  Gen.  J.  L.,  35.  259. 

Gellatly,  Rev.  Alexander,   152.     Johnston,  John  Taylor,  275. 
Gilchrist  &  Co.,   (Boston,)  264v\Johnston,  Gov.,  of  North  Caro- 


GALT,  John,  242,  362. 
Garden,  Alexander,  149. 


Gilfillan,  Judge  James,  315 
Gordon,  Andrew  R.,  71. 
Gordon,  Thomas,  302. 
Gowans,  William,  248. 
Graeme,  Dr.  Thomas,  198. 
Graham,  Andrew,  10. 
Graham,  Isabella,  323. 


lina,  159. 
Johnston,  Gov.  Robert,  413. 
Jones,  Paul,  134. 


KEITH,  Rev.  George,  150. 

Keith,  Prof.  John,  286. 

Keith,  Sir  William,  87,  198. 

Graham,  John,  of  Edinburgh,  10.  Kemp,  Rev.  Dr.  William  (Bish- 
^\    Grant,  President  U.  S.,  301.  op),  168. 

Grant,  Mrs.,  of  Laggan,  319,377-  Kennedy,  David  (vocalist),  335, 

Gray,  David,  392.  337,  395. 

Greenshields,  David,  290.  Kennedy,  James,  407. 

Greig,  John,  Canandaigua,  310.     Kennedy,  John  S.,   7,   237,   277, 

HALL,  David,  245. 
Hall,  Rev.  Dr.  Robert,  154. 
•    Hamilton,  Alexander,  57,  123. 
Hamilton,  Andrew,  86,  302. 
Hamilton,  Gen.  W.  B.,  271. 
Hamilton,  John,  271. 
Hamilton,  John  C.,  271. 
Hardie,  James,  285. 
Hart,  James  M.,  182. 
Hart,  William,  181. 
Harper,   Dr.  J.   M.,  405. 
Henderson,  D.  B.,  318. 
Henderson,  D.  M.,  404. 


Kennedy,  R.  L.,  237. 
Kennedy,  William,  391. 
Kidd,  Capt.,  52. 

King,  Judge  Mitchell,  310,  413. 
Kinnear,  Peter,  262. 
Kirkwood,  James  P.,  217. 
Knox,  John,  106,  IG/,  282. 


Henderson,  Peter,  205. 
Henry,  Joseph,  302. 


LAIDLIE,  Rev.  Archibald,  152, 

Laidlaw,  W.  G.,  318. 

Laing,  Joseph,  36,  39. 

Latto,  Thomas  C.,  397. 

Law,  James  D.,  408. 

Law  son,  John,  352. 

Lawson,  Jarnes,  372. 


INDEX.  445 

Lee,  James,  273.  McColl,  Evan,  402. 

Lenox,  James,  236,  275.  McCosh,  President,  239,287,  347. 

Lenox,  Robert,  235,  274.  McCulloch,  Hon.  Hugh,  314. 

Livingston,   Family  of,   130.  McDougall,  Gen.  Alex.,  115. 

Louden,  Samuel,  231.  McGill,  James,  288. 

McGillivray,  Gen.  Alex.,  20. 

MAITLAND,  David,  233.  Mclntosh,  Gen.  Lachlan,  116. 

Macadam,  J.  L.,  16.  Mclntosh,  Wm.,  Indian  chief,  22. 

Macdonald,  Sir  John  A.,  222,  McLachlan,  Alexander,  399. 

Maitland,  R.  L.,  274.  McLean,  Andrew,  406. 

Mason,  John,  343.  McLeod,  Rev.  Dr.  Alex.,  162. 

Mason,  Rev.  Dr.  John,  153.  McLeod,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  N.,  163. 
Mason,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  M.,  154,  164,  McNaughton,  Dr.  James,  202. 

326. 

Maxwell,  Hugh,  311.  NAIRNE,  Prof.  C.  M.,  296. 

Maxwell,  William,  230.  Nelson,  Thomas,  "  Scotch  Tom," 

Mercer,  Gen.  Hugh,  in,  223. 

Middleton,  Dr.  Peter,  200.  North   British   Society  of  Hali- 

Milne,  Alexander,  223.  fax,  422. 

Mitchell,  Hon.  Alex.,  256,  257.  Norrie,  Adam,  232. 
Moffat,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  C.,  368. 

Monro,  Rev.  Henry,  156.  OLIVER,     John,      (Chicago,) 
Montgomerie,      Major      Archi-      257. 

bald,  27.  Orr,  Robert,  209. 
Montgomerie,  John,  90. 

Morrison,  Charles,  195.  PATON,    Susannah,   345. 

Morrison,  Gen.  David,  36.  Pattison,    Granville    Sharp,   295. 

Moultrie,  Dr.  John,  414.  Phyfe,   Duncan,  253. 

Muir,  Rev.  James,  160.  Picken,  Andrew  B.,  382. 

Muir,  Dr.  Samuel,  160.  Picken,  Joanna  B.,  382. 

Murray,  Gen.  James,  96.  Pinkerton,  Allan,  15. 

Murray,  William,  407.  Pirie,  George,  374. 
Mac  Arthur,  Judge,  Arthur,  316. 

Macornb,  Gen.  Alexander,  123.  RAFFEN,  Capt.  J.  T.,  34. 
Macdonald,  Flora,  320.  Ramsay,  Donald,  399. 
Macdonald,  Hon.  John,  278.  Reid,   David  Boswall,  206. 
Macdonnell,  Miles,  101.  Reid,  Duncan,  51. 
Macfarlane,  Robert,  367.  Reid,     Robert,     C'  Rob     Wan- 
Mackenzie,  Sir  Alexander,  66.  lock,")  406. 
Mackenzie,  Donald,  59,  60.  Reid,  Hon.  Whitelaw,  375. 
Maclay,  Rev.  Dr.  Archibald,  163.  Reid,  William,  263. 
Maclean,  Prof.  John,  287.  Rhind,  J.  M.,  187. 
Maclure,  William,  203.  Ritchie,  A.  H.,  184. 
Macmillan,  Wm.,  205.  Ross,  Dr.  J.  D.,  370,  390,  398. 
Macpherson,  Jas.,  "  Ossian,"  81.  Ross,     John,     of     Philadelphia, 
McArthur,  Gen.  John,  34.  126,  227. 
McArthur,  John,  192.  Roy,  Andrew,  269. 
McAuslan,  John,  267.  Russell,  Archibald,  273. 
McCallum,  Donald  C.,  218.  Russell,  William,  295. 


440  THE     SCOT     IN     AMERICA. 

ST.     ANDREW'S     SOCIETY  Stobo,   Rev.   Archibald,   414. 
of    Charleston,    149,    157,    246,  Stuart,   Alexander,  281,   238. 

311,  413.  Stuart,  Gilbert  C.,  179. 
St.  Andrew's  Society  of  Phila-  Stuart,  Kinloch,  238. 

delphia,  416.  Stuart,  Robert,  59,  62. 

St.    Andrew's     Society    of    the  Stuart,   R.   L.,  238,  281. 
State  of  New  York,   154,   173,  Stuart,  Mrs.   R.  L.,  239,  281. 

312,  419.  Sturoc,  W.  C.,  407. 
St.  Andrew's  Society  of  Mont-  Swan,  James,   120. 

real,  423. 

St.   Clair,    Gen.   Arthur,    113.        TAYLOR,  Rev.  Dr.  W.  M.,  165. 
Sandeman,  Robert,   142.  Thorn,  James,   186. 

Scott,  Prof.  D.  Burnet,  297.         Thomson,  Rev.  Dr.  J.,  166,  248. 
Scott,  Rev.  Dr.  George,  387.        Thomson,  Robert,  187. 
Scott,  Walter,   143.  Thorburn,  Grant,  205,  240. 

Scott,     Mrs.,     (mother     of     Sir  Troup,  John  E.,  267. 

Walter,)  325.  Turnbull,    Rev.    Robert,   365. 

Scottish  Clans,  Order  of,  429.      Tytler,  James,  383. 
Seton,  Mgr.,  173. 
Seventy-ninth  H  i  g  h  1  anclers,  WADDELL,   Thomas,   271. 

(New  York,)  36.  Walker,  Wm.,  (Quebec,)  280. 

Shaw,  John,  (St.  Louis,)  254.      Wait,  George  M.,  220. 
Shepherd,   Norwell   &  Co.,  264,  Wanless,  Andrew,  406. 

265.  *  Washington,     George,     21,     29, 

Shirlaw,  Walter,   190.  107,  179,  202,  302. 

Simpson,  Sir  George,  67.  Watts,  Family  of,  125. 

Simpson,  Crawford  &  Simpson,  Webster,  William,  40. 

268.  Wells,  Robert,  246. 

Sinclair,  Dr.  A.  D.,  202.  Wellstood,  Family  of,  190. 

Sinclair,  John,    (vocalist,)   335.    Whittet,  Robert,  404. 
Sinclair,  Malcolm,  40.  Wilkie,   Daniel,    (Quebec,)   292. 

Skene,   Alexander,  cS6.  Williamson,    Chas.,   53,   54,   230. 

Skene,  Prof.  A.  J.  C.,  202.  Williamson,  John,  185. 

Smibert,  John,  178.  Williamson,  Peter,  57. 

Smith,  Sir  Donald  A.,  279.  Wilson,  Sir  Daniel,  350. 

Smith,  George,   (Chicago,)  281,  Wilson,  John,    (vocalist,)   336. 

256.  Wilson,  John,  (printer,)  247. 

Smith,  James  M.,  264.  Wilson,  James,  (Signer,)  419. 

Smith,  W.  E.,  94.  Wilson,   Wm.,    (Poughkeepsie,) 

Smith,  W.  R.,  205.  390. 

Smillie,  Family,  the,  180.  Wingfield,  Alexander,  403. 

Somerville,  Alexander,  363.          Witherspoon,    Rev.    Dr.    John, 
Sons  of  Scotland,  Order  of,  432.      104,  107,  244,  324,  325,  419. 
Spence,  Dr.  John,  201.  Wood,  William,  298. 

Spence,  John  F.,  261.  Wright,   Fanny,  331. 

Spence,  W.  W.,  261.  Wright,    Chief   Justice    Robert, 

Steel,    Wm.,    (Abolitionist,)    n.      413. 
Stewart,  Dr.  A.  M.,  375. 
Stewart.  John  A.,  276.  YOUNG,  Hugh,  39. 


HOME  USE 

CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
MAIN  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 
1 -month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling  642-3405. 
6-month  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  Circulation  Desk. 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior 

to  due  date. 

ALL  BOOKS  ARE  SUBJECT  TO  RECALL  7  DAYS 
AFTER  DATE  CHECKED  OUT. 


SRARY  LOAN' 


JAN  1  1 


1997 


RECEIVED 

.-^^—»———^— —————— 

NOV  0  &  1998 


Genera!  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -U.C.  BERKELEY 


YB  37247 


8000128213 


.S3R8 


